How Telegram Shapes Global Narratives and Controls What the World Believes

By 2025, Telegram isn’t just a messaging app. It’s the most powerful tool for shaping what billions of people believe - and no mainstream platform comes close. With over 1 billion active users, it’s become the hidden engine behind global narratives, from war propaganda to election interference. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Telegram doesn’t try to control what you see. That’s exactly why it’s so dangerous.

The Platform That Doesn’t Moderate

Telegram’s design is simple: send messages, create public channels with unlimited subscribers, and let content flow without filters. Most messages aren’t even encrypted - they’re stored on Telegram’s servers, making them easy to monitor, analyze, and exploit. This isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. And it’s why state actors, criminals, and extremists all use it.

In 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainians turned to Telegram for real-time updates - bomb alerts, evacuation routes, soldier locations. It saved lives. But at the same time, Russian state channels flooded the platform with false stories: Ukrainian soldiers committing atrocities, NATO planning attacks on Russia, Western weapons being used to target civilians. These weren’t random posts. They were coordinated, repeated, and refined across hundreds of channels.

How Russia Weaponizes Telegram

Blackbird.AI’s 2024 analysis found that Russian operatives don’t care if their messages go viral on Telegram. They care if those messages show up on CNN, BBC, or X. Their playbook is brutal in its simplicity:

1. Seed a narrative on a Telegram channel - say, "NATO is arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine."
2. Let it spread among pro-Russian communities, influencers, and bots.
3. Watch as sympathetic Western voices pick it up and repost it as "a concerning perspective."
4. Wait for mainstream media to quote those voices, giving the lie legitimacy.

Between 2021 and 2024, Russian embassies in Germany, the U.S., the U.K., and France posted 78% of all geopolitical content on Telegram. In Japan, 87% of their posts linked "Ukraine" and "NATO" to "United States" and "Western policy," framing the war as an American plot. These aren’t conspiracy theories - they’re state-funded narratives, designed to look like legitimate criticism.

By April 2025, researchers tracked 3,634 fake Telegram accounts posting over 316,000 pro-Russian comments. These weren’t just bots. Many were human-operated accounts, carefully built over months to look real. They replied to news articles, joined discussions, and slowly shifted the tone of entire conversations.

The Paradox of Neutral Ground

Telegram doesn’t ban political content. It doesn’t label misinformation. It doesn’t even warn users. This neutrality makes it a magnet for every side of every conflict. On one channel, you’ll find President Zelenskyy’s official updates. On another, you’ll find Russian military analysts claiming Ukraine is a U.S. puppet. And both are equally visible.

This creates a dangerous illusion: that all sides are equally valid. In reality, one side has billions in funding, professional media teams, and AI-driven content farms. The other is a volunteer blogger with a phone. But on Telegram, they look the same.

A 2025 Nature Communications study found statistically significant coordination across 1,247 Telegram channels during the 2024 U.S. election. Messages were translated into Spanish, Arabic, and French, then pushed to local communities. The goal wasn’t to convince Americans. It was to create chaos - to make people doubt everything.

Cybercrime and Disinformation Are Now the Same Thing

Telegram isn’t just about politics. It’s also the world’s biggest underground marketplace. By early 2025, cybercrime activity on the platform had surged over 2,000% in just three months. Scammers sell fake vaccines, stolen credit cards, hacked accounts, and even AI-generated deepfake videos of politicians.

And here’s the twist: the same channels that sell stolen data also push political propaganda. A channel called @CryptoSecure2025 might offer "100% safe Bitcoin wallets" - then post a video titled "Why NATO Is Stealing Your Freedom." The overlap is intentional. Criminals fund disinformation. Disinformation recruits new criminals. The lines have vanished.

Reddit users on r/cybersecurity report that 90% of credential leaks now come from Telegram. Security researchers use the platform to track threats - but so do hackers. The same tools that help journalists expose corruption are used to build phishing kits.

Why the West Can’t Stop It

The EU’s Digital Services Act found Telegram non-compliant in 73% of disinformation cases reviewed in early 2025. But enforcement is nearly impossible. Telegram refuses to share user data. It doesn’t have a physical headquarters. Its founder, Pavel Durov, calls himself a digital freedom fighter. He’s built a brand around resisting censorship - even when that means letting lies spread.

Western governments are stuck. Shut down Telegram? That would anger millions of users who rely on it for privacy, protest organizing, and emergency communication. Regulate it? It’s designed to evade regulation. Ignore it? The narratives keep spreading.

And here’s the worst part: once a lie hits mainstream media, it’s too late. A 2025 study by the Community of Democracies found that 22% of major Western news outlets covered Ukraine-related claims that originated on Telegram - without ever mentioning their source. The lie becomes truth by repetition.

What Users Really Think

Most people don’t realize they’re being manipulated. A January 2025 survey showed 58% of regular Telegram users fact-check information before sharing it. That’s good. But 42% admit they’ve been drawn into radical content after joining "neutral" discussion groups.

Trustpilot reviews show a 4.3/5 rating - but 37% of negative reviews blame disinformation. One user wrote: "Great for privacy but became a cesspool of conspiracy theories after 2022." Another said: "I joined to talk about tech, now I’m getting daily posts about how the UN is a globalist cult."

On r/Telegram, 68% of users praise the channel system for community building. But 42% say they’re worried about what’s hidden in plain sight. The platform feels safe because it’s quiet. No algorithms pushing rage. No ads. Just raw, unfiltered content. That’s the trap.

The Future Is Already Here

By 2026, experts predict a 300% increase in multilingual coordinated campaigns on Telegram. Crypto, AI, and Web3.0 are merging with disinformation. Imagine a Telegram channel that sells a "blockchain voting system" - while simultaneously pushing the idea that elections are rigged. The financial scam and the political lie are bundled together.

Telegram’s growth isn’t slowing. It’s accelerating. As remote work and digital communication expand, so does demand for tools that feel private and unrestricted. But privacy without accountability isn’t freedom - it’s an open door.

The world doesn’t need to ban Telegram. It needs to understand it. The next time you see a shocking video on X or a viral post on Facebook, ask: Where did this start? Chances are, it began on a Telegram channel - quiet, unmoderated, and utterly unstoppable.