Squire talked with Wired about how the messaging platform has been adopted by political activists to both spread information publicly and communicate secretly.
A recent article in Wired about the growing use of the Telegram messaging app by far-right groups in the U.S. includes insights from Professor of Computer Science Megan Squire.
The article notes that Telegram has become more than a messaging app in recent years as it has evolved into a social media platform with both public and private channels. Reporter Darren Loucaides notes that the platform is now “ideal for evangelizing in public and then plotting in secret” due to its hybrid nature.
“I call it the one-two punch,” Squire told Wired. “You can do both propaganda and planning on the same app.”
Squire shared that here research has found that the number of American far-right users on Telegram is likely at least around 10 million, but that the lack of transparency over the platform’s users makes it difficult to know for certain.
Read the entire article here.