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Telegram Monitor: Monitoring Brazilian Political Groups and Channels on Telegram

Instant messaging platforms such as Telegram became one of the main means of communication used by people all over the world. Most of them are home of several groups and channels that connect thousands of people focused on political topics. However, they have suffered with misinformation campaigns with a direct impact on electoral processes around the world. While some platforms, such as WhatsApp, took restrictive policies and measures to attenuate the issues arising from the abuse of their systems, others have emerged as alternatives, presenting little or no restrictions on content moderation or actions in combating misinformation. Telegram is one of those systems, which has been attracting more users and gaining popularity. In this work, we present the "Telegram Monitor", a web-based system that monitors the political debate in this environment and enables the analysis of the most shared content in multiple channels and public groups. Our system aims to allow journalists, researchers, and fact-checking agencies to identify trending conspiracy theories, misinformation campaigns, or simply to monitor the political debate in this space along the 2022 Brazilian elections. We hope our system can assist the combat of misinformation spreading through Telegram in Brazil.