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Comment by the_third_wave | Hacker News Reader

https://backlinko.com/telegram-users#telegram-popularity-in-...

If this stat is to be trusted Telegram is the 2nd most popular messaging app in the UK. There must be an awful lot of anti-lockdown protestors, anti-vax groups, anti-semitic, far-right, and so on in that country to make is so popular.

By the way, where do the far-left extremists go for their messaging needs? Are they on Whatsapp? Signal? Telegram maybe? I may have missed something but for some reason you only seem to list groups which in the media are labelled 'right' or (as you stated) 'far-right'.

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Firstly, I think there are a lot of people on the fringe of the extremist groups. Maybe they are only in a "concerned parents" group who talk about vaccines, but it's an on-ramp.

Secondly, I think there are methodological issues with that analysis. Measuring by App Store categories is hard to do accurately, only presents a snapshot in time, its numbers that fluctuate a lot, and it only represents new user acquisition, not active user growth. I wouldn't trust this number at all without more information. Anecdotally, I don't know anyone who uses Telegram, although I do know many people who downloaded it once.

> where do the far-left extremists go

This isn't really something we have a problem with in the UK. I'm sure there are some, but the bulk of our issues are growing far-right, nationalist, and/or authoritarian groups. I don't think a debate over terms is going to be productive, and as this is your third account you might want to be careful with it!

> This isn't really something we have a problem with in the UK. I'm sure there are some, but the bulk of our issues are growing far-right, nationalist, and/or authoritarian groups

Are we talking about the same United Kingdom as the one where Yougov has been doing polls on the subject of extremism [1]? If so I wonder what gives you the impression that the bulk of [y]our issues are growing far-right, nationalist, and/or authoritarian groups given that those who answered those polls come up with the following ranking:

#1 islamic extremism (58%)

#2 right-wing extremism (31%)

#2 left-wing extremism (23%)

Unsurprisingly the results differ widely based upon the political affiliation of the interviewee with left-wing voters placing larger emphasis on right-wing extremism while right-wing voters do the opposite. Nevertheless, left-wing extremism seems to be almost as 'popular' as the right-wing version while both are far less 'popular' than islamic extremism.

[1] https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/0...

This is a survey on public perceptions. Not actual threats.

Can you show a survey of actual threats which supports the thesis that left-wing extremism is as insignificant as you claim it to be? From what I am able to see there is not that much difference between the two.

Here's a recent report on left-wing extremism in the United Kingdom:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

I have not found a similar study on far-right extremism but there is a report giving an overview of the far right:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

Reading these reports shows that political violence currently is at a low level in the UK but that it is on the rise internationally which has the potential to lead to an increase both on the far-left as well as the far-right side.

The Yougov poll is an interesting exercise in seeing how public perception does not align well with available data [0].

Section 3 of the link breaks down how many people have been identified as at risk from particular ideologies.

'Mixed, unstable or unclear' accounts for 51%.

Islamic extremism is 24%.

Right-wing extremism is 22%.

Left wing extremism is less than 3%.

So, the data aligns well with what the original commentator was suggesting.

[0] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/individuals-referre...

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