Telegram: Data Collection, Opportunities and Challenges

Tuja Khaund, Muhammad Nihal Hussain, Mainuddin Shaik, Nitin Agarwal

Abstract: Over the years, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc., have become a valuable resource for marketing, public relations etc. One emerging mobile instant messaging medium, Telegram, has recently gained momentum in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. While most social media platforms have been studied extensively, Telegram is still underexplored and a gold mine for researchers and social scientists to explore and study user behaviors. Moreover, the ease of data collection through its API and access to historical data makes it a lucrative platform for social computing research. This paper explores the features of Telegram and presents a methodology to collect and analyze data. We also demonstrate the viability of the platform as a source of social computing research by presenting a case study on Ukrainian Parliamentary members’ discourse. We conduct both text and network analysis to gain insights into political discourse and public opinion. Our findings include use of Telegram by Ukrainian politicians to connect with their voter base, promote their work as well as ridicule their peers. As a result, channels are actively disseminating information on current political affairs and chat groups that discuss views on Ukrainian government. From our study, we conclude that Telegram is a rich data source to study social behavior, analyze information campaigns through content dissemination, etc. This study opens plethora of research opportunities in future on Telegram.