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By Marie Boran
Technology Reporter
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A new study has shed light on the world of Telegram's darknet groups, showing Russian is the most dominant language across these groups on the popular messaging app, followed by English.
Researchers from the Italian Polytechnic University of Turin and the Brazilian Federal University of Minas Gerais analyzed more than 50 million messages across 669 public Telegram groups, including 62 groups categorized as "darknet" activity (also referred to as the dark web). Their findings offer a glimpse into how these online spaces operate.
"We are aware that Telegram is sometimes used to share copyright-protected material and illicit content—more so, our results suggest that this behavior is frequent," the study authors wrote. Newsweek contacted Telegram for comment via the platform's official press team channel.
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Analysis of these darknet groups found that rather than observing brisk messages in the trade of illicit items, these groups stood out for having extremely long messages compared to other topics, such as cryptocurrency and education, and even longer than the average message posted in political discussion groups.
The study, which is available as a preprint, also looked at bot activity, a common practice across groups that is used to moderate content and welcome users, among other things. While all group topics contained some degree of bot activity, it was moderate in darknet groups—particularly when compared to linguistic and education groups, where it accounted for almost 30 percent of activity.
Additionally, a manual check found that most messages contained images of samples of the illicit content these groups tend to trade in, including stolen credit card information and illegal substances.
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In 2023, Danique Lummen, a cybersecurity specialist and analyst, carried out research on darknet markets, suggesting that the reason the messaging platform, which passed 700 million users last year, is seen as a growing market for the darknet is related to its "ease of use."
Lummen carried out a comparative analysis of Telegram groups against three now-closed darknet marketplaces—Wallstreet Market, Hansa Market and AlphaBay—and found that Telegram groups were "more focused on the initial ease of use of the advertisements in the marketplace itself."
"The marketplace can be accessed by simply installing the Telegram app, which can be installed on almost every (modern) mobile phone, the specific marketplaces can then be found using the built-in search function of the Telegram app," Lummen wrote.
Telegram puts the potential buyer at a disadvantage, however, when "the marketplaces are purely there as advertisement boards. As soon as users want to purchase goods or service advertised they need to contact the seller directly and the entire purchasing process is done outside of the marketplace," the analyst continued.
The research found that, in addition to cryptocurrency, advertisements on Telegram's darknet groups often say they will accept payments through PayPal, Paysafe and even gift cards, whereas darknet marketplaces almost exclusively transact via digital wallets and use an escrow system to protect both buyers and sellers of goods.
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the darknet? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
References
Perlo, A., Paoletti, G., Jha, N., Vassio, L., Almeida, J. & Mellia, M. (2024). A Topic-wise Exploration of the Telegram Group-verse. 10.48550/arXiv.2409.02525.
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