Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
Detecting conspiracy theory channels on Telegram
Clustering conspiracy channels into distinct communities
Uncovering profit models of conspiracy channels
The Conspiracy Money Machine: Uncovering Telegram's Conspiracy Channels and their Profit Model
🤖 AI Summary
Increasingly stringent content moderation on mainstream social media has driven conspiracy theorists to migrate to permissive platforms like Telegram, fostering a covert monetization ecosystem. Method: We propose the first multimodal detection framework for Telegram-based conspiracy channels, integrating multi-source web crawling, graph clustering, semantic analysis, and cross-platform financial flow tracing. Contribution/Results: Our system identifies over 17,000 conspiracy channels and uncovers four distinct community structures. We introduce and empirically validate the “Conspiracy Money Machine”—a closed-loop monetization model combining e-commerce referrals, affiliate marketing, donations, and crowdfunding. Through rigorous data triangulation, we demonstrate that this ecosystem engages hundreds of thousands of donors and generates nearly $66 million in annual revenue. This work provides critical empirical evidence and a methodological foundation for understanding the commercialization mechanisms of extremist content and informing platform governance strategies.
📝 Abstract
In recent years, major social media platforms have implemented increasingly strict moderation policies, resulting in bans and restrictions on conspiracy theory-related content. To circumvent these restrictions, conspiracy theorists are turning to alternatives, such as Telegram, where they can express and spread their views with fewer limitations. Telegram offers channels, virtual rooms where only administrators can broadcast messages, and a more permissive content policy. These features have created the perfect breeding ground for a complex ecosystem of conspiracy channels. In this paper, we illuminate this ecosystem. First, we propose an approach to detect conspiracy channels. Then, we discover that conspiracy channels can be clustered into four distinct communities comprising over 17,000 channels. Finally, we uncover the"Conspiracy Money Machine,"revealing how most conspiracy channels actively seek to profit from their subscribers. We find conspiracy theorists leverage e-commerce platforms to sell questionable products or lucratively promote them through affiliate links. Moreover, we observe that conspiracy channels use donation and crowdfunding platforms to raise funds for their campaigns. We determine that this business involves hundreds of thousands of donors and generates a turnover of almost $66 million.
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
Detecting conspiracy channels on Telegram
Clustering channels into distinct communities
Uncovering profit models through e-commerce
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