From Fringe to Mainstream: How Telegram Facilitates Far-Right Normalization
P4-S79-4
Presented by: Arne Holverscheid
I examine the normalization of far-right ideologies through Telegram, focusing on how the platform facilitates the spread of extremist content and its integration into broader political discourse. Leveraging Telegram's open API, I construct a network of German far-right channels, connected both by shared user bases and content dissemination between them. To identify causal effects, I leverage quasi-random government shutdowns of channels as natural experiments. These disruptions allow me to measure the impact on political behavior, specifically the frequency of protests organized on channels that are nearby in the network. My work contributes to a growing literature on social norm change around the radical-right, demonstrating the role of direct-messaging platforms in the spread of fringe politics into the mainstream.
Keywords: Far-right, extremism, social norms, social networks, online behavior