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How Telegram became a playground for criminals, extremists and terrorists

By Paul Mozur, Adam Satariano, Aaron Krolik, Steven Lee Myers
New York Times·
17 mins to read
How Telegram became a playground for criminals, extremists and terrorists
Telegram offers features that enable criminals, terrorists and grifters to organise at scale and to sidestep scrutiny from the authorities. Photo / Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP

Drug dealers, scammers and white nationalists openly conduct business and spread toxic speech on the platform, according to a New York Times analysis of more than 3.2 million Telegram messages.

For millions of people, Telegram is like any other social media or messaging app.

In Brazil, 167,000 people subscribe to

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