A Cross-Platform Topic Analysis of the Nazi Narrative on Twitter and Telegram during the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

To influence the information landscape preceding and during the military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia initiated a disinformation campaign portraying Ukraine as a Nazi state. This study aims to compare discussions related to this campaign on Twitter and Telegram. The analysis reveals that the Nazis and Ukraine narrative was constant on Twitter but only emerged on Telegram after the invasion in channels that had previously focused on a broader set of conspiracy theories. Beyond the examination of Russian disinformation in this case study, the paper introduces an innovative methodology for constructing topic networks from social media data. This approach expands upon traditional topic modeling by incorporating the network properties of social media data to establish directed networks that characterize the interplay between conversation topics. Through this methodology, we gain the ability to observe topical evolutions, providing fresh insights into the disinformation campaign and its efficacy in shaping discussions around the Russian invasion on social media.