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17:15
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18:15

Tag 2

From Covidiots to Meliorator: A Student Research Project’s Unexpected Path Through Telegram and Russian Influence

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What started as a lighthearted experiment in a psychology practicum quickly turned into a semester of discoveries no textbook could offer. My students and I set out to analyze disinformation in German Telegram channels, planning to monitor these groups’ activities up to the European elections. But what awaited us exceeded all expectations: we encountered a bizarre mix of COVID-19 deniers, far-right groups, and farmers’ protests—groups that seemed like harmless eccentrics at first but revealed themselves as part of a more sophisticated disinformation strategy. A pivotal moment was when we came across a report by Austrian broadcaster AUF1, which pulled us further into the world of Russian disinformation networks than we’d ever anticipated. What did we ultimately find? A network straight out of a spy novel, featuring former RTde executives, influencers, AfD politicians. Fortunately, the most shocking was their OPSEC. This is why in this talk, I can take you on a journey through the absurdities and dark depths of this world, sharing our surprising findings and showing how even with minimal effort, one can glimpse behind the scenes of these “coincidental connections.”

Imagine you’re a group of psychology students in a “Quantitative Research Practicum” course, just hoping to do a bit of data analysis. Instead of traditional experiments, we wanted to tackle reality and see how deep the rabbit hole of disinformation in German Telegram channels truly goes. The idea was a straightforward study around the European elections, focusing on the usual suspects: anti-COVID demonstrators and conspiracy theory communities. But what we found blew our expectations out of the water, turning into what felt like a spy thriller.

It started innocently enough: COVID-19 deniers, huddling in their own echo chambers, almost nostalgically stuck in the past. But from there, we quickly stumbled onto far-right groups interwoven with circles mobilizing against the “green agenda” and escalating farmers’ protests. The real turning point, though, came when we stumbled upon a video from Austrian channel AUF1. In it, a story about an alleged land redistribution led by none other than Bill Gates kicked off a journey that took us across Europe and the online world. What initially sounded like typical, fringe disinformation turned out to be the gateway to a well-connected infrastructure that extended all the way to Russia.

And then it got truly bizarre: suddenly, we found connections that were both amusing and unsettling. We uncovered links to former RTde executives, an aspiring actress turned disinformation influencer, and a psychologist from Regensburg who’d written a bestseller about NATO and nanobots. Then there were AfD politicians—yes, multiple of them—members of a Russian motorcycle gang called the “Night Wolves,” and influencers like Alina Lipp and Thomas Röper, who play prominent roles in this web of falsehoods and propaganda.

Our analysis revealed a network exemplifying how former leaders of the Russia Today disinformation machine are now actively working to deepen societal divisions in Germany—often in ways that are as absurd as they are disturbing. The lack of OPSEC among some of these figures unintentionally granted us insights we never sought. When we saw how a protest video from Austria led us to Russia, then to the occupied Crimea, back to Koblenz, and beyond, we realized there was much more at stake here than we’d initially thought.

In this talk, we’ll share the story of our “research”—a mix of disinformation, narcissism, far-right ideology, and shockingly bad digital security practices. We’ll show you how easy it was to dive into the absurdity of this network and equip you with the tools to dig into these stories for yourselves. Because trust us: this story is so surreal, you likely won’t believe it until you’ve seen the data yourself. Finally, we will tell you about the Meliorator backend, whether we found evidence in our data, and what it has to do with all this.