©
WORKING PAPER | SEPTEMBER 2025
The Amazon Biome in Messages: Public
Policy and Communication Frames on
Telegram
Bia Carneiro, Giulia Tucci
Table of Contents
Key messages ......................................................................................................................... 2
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 3
2. Background ........................................................................................................................ 6
3. Data and Methods ............................................................................................................. 11
4. Results and Discussion ...................................................................................................... 13
5. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 19
References ........................................................................................................................... 21
About the Authors ................................................................................................................... 28
Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................ 28
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 2
Key messages
Telegram is a Central Arena for Amazon-Related Discourse
The platform has evolved into a major space for environmental and political communication in
Brazil. Amazon-related messages on Telegram surged after 2019, often outpacing traditional
media in volume and intensity, especially during crises like forest fires and international
summits.
Polarization and Securitization Shape Amazon Narratives
Telegram discourse is highly polarized, with competing narratives from a diversity of actors.
Topics such as illegal mining, military operations, and sovereignty dominate, reflecting a
securitized framing of the Amazon that often overshadows ecological concerns.
Disinformation Undermines Climate Action
The spread of misinformation—especially denialist and conspiratorial content—on Telegram
distorts public understanding of Amazon issues. This undermines trust in science, delays policy
responses, and reinforces harmful narratives that serve vested interests.
Digital Virality Amplifies Strategic Messaging
Coordinated cross-posting and forwarding behaviors allow actors to rapidly disseminate
content across large audiences. This infrastructure enables both genuine mobilization and
manipulative campaigns, making Telegram a powerful tool for shaping public opinion on
environmental governance.
Policy Must Address Both Ecological and Informational Integrity
Protecting the Amazon requires not only physical conservation efforts but also strategies to
counter digital disinformation. Strengthening climate literacy, public dialogue, and platform
governance is essential to prevent negative social tipping points and support evidence-based
environmental policies.
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 3
1. Introduction
The Amazon biome contains the world’s largest and most biodiverse rainforest. The enormous green
spread on the world map constitutes a complex living system that sustains planetary life, harboring
about one in ten of all known species within its boundaries (Pilcher, 2023). It covers roughly seven
million square kilometers, an area similar to Australia (Bryce, 2023), and, spanning nine nations,
provides habitat to around thirty million people, including more than 350 Indigenous ethnic groups
(Pilcher, 2023). This diverse combination of life highlights both the forest’s ecological value and
cultural significance.
The Amazon also acts as a planetary engine. Its vast carbon stock – about 150 billion metric tons – is
equivalent to more than ten years of global fossil‑fuel emissions (Asner et al., 2010). Roughly half of
this carbon is stored in soils (Fauset et al., 2015), and the rest in more than 16 thousand tree species
(ter Steege et al., 2013). By locking away about one‑fifth of all carbon captured by vegetation
worldwide, the forest regulates atmospheric chemistry, thereby reducing the pace of global warming
(Fauset et al., 2015). The rainforest's “hydrological engine” recycles water vapor between five and
six times, creating its own rain and influencing rainfall patterns across South America (Lovejoy &
Nobre, 2019). These processes sustain agriculture in distant regions, through so‑called “flying
rivers” of atmospheric moisture, and stabilize regional temperatures (Ferrante et al., 2023).
Despite its importance, the region faces severe threats from human activities and global warming.
Deforestation has removed almost a fifth of the forest in the last forty years; more specifically,
scientific assessments estimate that about 17% of tree cover has been lost since 1970 (Bryce, 2023;
Lovejoy & Nobre, 2019), and by mid‑2025, roughly 18% had been cleared (Watts, 2025). These losses
are driven by agribusiness, mining, and land speculation (B. Brito et al., 2019; Lapola et al., 2023),
often through fire‑clearing methods that transform stored carbon into carbon dioxide. As trees are
felled and burned, parts of the forest have already become net emitters of CO₂ (B. Brito et al., 2019).
The cumulative impacts of deforestation and a warming atmosphere threaten to push the Amazon
beyond a tipping point (Lovejoy & Nobre, 2019; Watts, 2025). Earth systems scientist Carlos Nobre
warns that losing just 20–25 % of pre‑deforestation tree cover could irreversibly transform the
rainforest into a degraded savannah (Watts, 2025). The ongoing trend of longer and drier dry seasons
is already evident; between the 1970s and the present, the southern Amazon’s dry season has
lengthened by several weeks, and the region has experienced four severe droughts in two decades
(Watts, 2025). Should deforestation continue unrestrained, local rainfall could decrease by up to
30% and regional temperatures would rise by several degrees (Bryce, 2023). The resulting release of
200–250 billion tonnes of CO₂ would effectively render the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming
to 1.5 °C unattainable (Da Silva Junior et al., 2020; Watts, 2025). Beyond climate, this ecological
collapse would jeopardise South American agriculture (Lovejoy & Nobre, 2019; Watts, 2025),
intensify fire risk (Da Silva Junior et al., 2020; Le Page et al., 2017), and increase the likelihood of
infectious disease spillovers (Ellwanger et al., 2020), while also compromising local water security,
since life systems in the Amazon critically and directly depend on water — not only for climate
balance, but also for transportation, subsistence, and cultural integrity (Börner; Scholl, 2009).
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 4
Recent observations further indicate that the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events
— both heavy rainfall and prolonged droughts — have significantly increased in the Amazon basin,
which further intensifies the ecological and social risks associated with deforestation and forest
degradation (Cerón et al., 2024).
The risks posed by unchecked deforestation and climate change in the Amazon are compounded by
a less visible, but equally profound, threat: the distortion of climate information in digital spaces.
Climate misinformation and disinformation hinder the collective response needed to address
environmental crises. Research on social media platforms shows that content linking to unreliable
sources garners significantly higher engagement than content linking to reliable sources (Edelson et
al., 2021; Vosoughi et al., 2018). Social media algorithms encourage users to select information that
aligns with their online behavior and pre-existing beliefs (Reviglio & Agosti, 2020; Zollo et al., 2015),
thereby fostering echo chambers and ideological segregation (Guo et al., 2020). Bots and trolls
further amplify false narratives, undermining public understanding of climate science (Carrington,
2025).
Widespread climate misinformation threatens collective responses by eroding trust in scientific
evidence, derailing evidence-based policy debate, and polarizing communities (Lewandowsky et al.,
2017; Treen et al., 2020). A 2025 study by the International Panel on the Information Environment
(IPIE) found that climate action is being obstructed by false and misleading information originating
from a range of actors, including fossil‑fuel lobbies, political groups, and certain nation-states
(Elbeyi et al., 2025). Such dynamics reflect a broader crisis of information integrity: effective climate
policy depends on a well‑informed public, yet disinformation distorts perceptions (Hameleers,
2023), delays action (Lamb et al., 2020), and erodes trust in science (Gundersen et al., 2022; Reed
et al., 2021).
In response to the growing threat of climate change misinformation, in November 2024, the Brazilian
government, the United Nations Secretariat (UN) and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), launched the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change
(SECOM, 2024; UNESCO, 2024). This international alliance seeks to confront the spread of
misleading narratives by fostering rigorous, evidence-based research, advancing transparency in
climate communication, and strengthening policy frameworks at both national and transnational
levels.
In this context, the objective of our research is to characterize and analyze how debates about the
Amazon biome are framed and disseminated across Portuguese-language public Telegram
channels. As researchers at CGIAR Climate Security, led by the Alliance of Bioversity International
and CIAT, we position this study within CGIAR's research-for-development mission to advance
science and innovations that enhance the resilience and sustainability of food, land, and water
systems.
By investigating how climate (dis)information circulates in digital spaces such as Telegram and how
frames tied to governance, sovereignty, risk, and enforcement are amplified, our work equips
decision-makers with actionable insights to design targeted interventions. This includes strategies
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 5
to counter disinformation that undermines climate action and adaptation planning in the Brazilian
Amazon and, by extension, in other contexts served by CGIAR.
The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT also participates in the Brazil Chapter of the Global
Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change, underscoring our institutional commitment to
safeguarding climate information ecosystems. This working paper operationalizes that commitment
by relying on digital methods (Rogers, 2013, 2024) and employing a reproducible pipeline to map
discourse dynamics, identify influential actors, and surface policy-relevant narratives that impact
climate action.
Within this global framework, we explore a central research question: What narratives and network
structures shape the circulation of Amazon Biome-related messages on public Portuguese-
language Telegram channels? This study examines these informational dynamics through the lens
of Telegram, a hybrid platform that has gained significant influence in Brazil's digital public sphere
(Cavalini et al., 2023; M. Júnior et al., 2022; Tucci, 2023; Tucci & Gouveia, 2025). While the app
enables rapid message dissemination and group mobilization, its encrypted architecture and limited
content moderation can also enable the proliferation of unverified information and facilitate
ideological coordination (Rogers, 2020; Urman & Katz, 2022). Through exploratory analysis, our
findings aim to inform institutional responses, platform governance debates, and public policy
processes addressing climate-related disinformation.
The remainder of the working paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides background on three
interlinked areas: (2.1) how the Amazon biome is represented in Brazilian media and political
discourse and (2.2) Telegram’s role within Brazil’s media ecosystem and its use in political
communication. Section 3 outlines our data and methods, detailing the creation of our Telegram
dataset (3.1), the data processing pipeline (3.2), and the study design and analytical workflow (3.3).
Section 4 presents the results and the discussion: we first provide a dataset overview (4.1), then
discuss topic modelling results (4.2), and network analysis. Finally, we reflect on the broader
implications of our findings for the intersection of public policy, digital communication, and Amazon
narratives, before concluding with suggestions for future research.
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 6
2. Background
2.1 Representations of the Amazon biome in the Brazilian digital
ecosystem and political discourse
The Amazon rainforest holds a central place in Brazil’s media and political discourse, often framed
in the context of conflicting interests between environmental protection, economic development
and national sovereignty (Bidone & Kovacic, 2018; Zhouri, 2010). In the digital sphere, these debates
have intensified, with social platforms amplifying both genuine concern and disinformation. While
environmental scientists and activists highlight the Amazon biome’s critical role in biodiversity
conservation and climate stability, warning of increasing ecological crises (Skill et al., 2021), voices
aligned with agribusiness and resource exploitation sometimes dismiss or downplay these issues
(Ferrante & Fearnside, 2019) – through forms of denialism, obstruction and greenwashing – and
frame international concerns as attacks on Brazilian sovereignty (Salles et al., 2023).
During the Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022), official data and scientific evidence concerning
the environment were systematically questioned, distorted, and disregarded (Hallal, 2022). His
government actively discredited deforestation data provided by the National Institute for Space
Research (INPE), which monitors Amazon forest loss. In 2019, Bolsonaro publicly dismissed INPE’s
satellite data that showed a sharp increase in deforestation, labeling it as false and damaging to
Brazil’s image (Deutsch & Fletcher, 2022). This dispute culminated in the forced resignation of
INPE’s director (Barrucho, 2019), Ricardo Galvão, following his defense of the agency’s data
integrity. The government’s dismissal of scientific evidence was part of a broader pattern of
undermining environmental institutions and the scientific community to advance economic
interests (Davis et al., 2020; Fuchs et al., 2023).
These actions severely weakened environmental governance and compromised Brazil’s credibility
in global climate discussions. Despite government attacks, INPE’s monitoring systems continued to
reveal alarming deforestation trends during Bolsonaro’s term, with deforestation rates significantly
rising (Da Silva Junior et al., 2020). The political attempts to discredit and control environmental data
demonstrated the administration’s prioritization of economic expansion and clientelism over
conservation and transparency, further complicating efforts to address environmental degradation
in the Amazon region.
For example, during the 2019 surge in Amazon forest fires, Bolsonaro’s administration rolled back
forest protections and cultivated an online narrative blaming non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) for the fires (Lyndon et al., 2022; Skill et al., 2021; Watts, 2019). The president formally
asserted to the UN that Brazil has been subjected to a “brutal disinformation campaign” concerning
the Amazon, insinuating that vested interests and “unpatriotic” actors were engaged in efforts to
undermine his administration (United Nations General Assembly, 2020). This rhetoric resonated
with a segment of the public (Lyndon et al., 2022), reinforcing longstanding conspiracy theories that
foreign powers and their local allies want to internationalize the Amazon for economic gain (Zhouri,
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 7
2010). Such claims were widely propagated online despite a lack of evidence, and scientific
recognition that land tenure structure and cattle ranching are central drivers of deforestation (Díaz
Baca et al., 2024).
Observers documented a surge of misleading content in 2019 as global attention turned to the
Amazon fires (Barsotti, 2023; Chokshi, 2019; Lyndon et al., 2022; Mooney, 2020). Bolsonaro
government allies on social media spread unsubstantiated accusations, such as alleging that
environmental NGOs had started the fires to make the government look bad (Uribe, 2019; Watts,
2019) or that the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, ICMBio, was responsible for
fire ignitions, even when actors spreading these narratives were themselves caught committing
environmental crimes (Matias, 2019). These examples illustrate how disinformation has been used
as a political tool to mislead facts and shift blame around Amazonian deforestation. Studies of false
Amazon-related news have found a consistent pattern: many rumors and fake claims adhere to
denialist thinking and seek to downplay the severity of the Amazon biome’s degradation (Fachin et
al., 2024; Salles et al., 2023) to serve the interests of those who wish to continue profiting from forest
exploitation.
Nevertheless, the Brazilian digital information ecosystem also hosts powerful narratives in defense
of the Amazon. Viral campaigns and hashtags (e.g., #PrayforAmazonas) have mobilized public
opinion domestically and worldwide, especially during high-profile crises like the 2019 fires (Skill et
al., 2021). Social media enabled indigenous leaders, environmental NGOs, and concerned citizens
to share on-the-ground images of burning forests and to demand action, forcing Amazon issues onto
the policy agenda. However, these genuine expressions of concern often encountered a wall of
counter-messaging. Researchers note that socio-environmental disinformation in Brazil frequently
takes two forms: either it reinforces prejudices and hate speech, for instance, portraying indigenous
people and environmentalists as obstacles to progress, or it is deployed strategically as a
smokescreen to distract from real problems (Salles et al., 2023).
In June 2022, following the assassinations of indigenist Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips in
the Amazon (Bonaldo et al., 2022; Nicas et al., 2022), a disinformation smokescreen strategy was
deployed. As public outrage and scrutiny of criminal activities in the rainforest intensified, a
fantastical conspiracy theory about a “lost city” called Ratanabá rapidly gained traction on Brazilian
social media (Biernath, 2022; R. Júnior & Mesquita, 2022). The Ratanabá hoax – claiming an ancient
extraterrestrial city lay hidden under the jungle – was amplified by pro-Bolsonaro influencers and
even the government's former culture secretary (Lima, 2022), in an attempt to divert attention from
real-world violence and impunity in the region. This incident highlights how easily a sensational
falsehood can overshadow urgent issues online, illustrating the volatile mix of emotion, myth, and
agenda-driven messaging that characterizes digital discourses.
Empirical studies and monitoring projects have begun to map the dynamics of Amazon-related
communication. A 2023 report by the Brazilian collective Intervozes (2023) identified dozens of
public figures and digital outlets that consistently spread misinformation about the biome. Their
analysis of 70 social media profiles (between March and September 2022) revealed that many false
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 8
claims about the Amazon originate in conservative activist circles, politicians’ pages, or partisan
alternative-media sites. Common themes include promoting stereotypes (e.g., portraying the
Amazon as an empty land for the taking), inciting hostility toward environmental defenders, and
denying scientific facts about deforestation and climate change. According to Intervozes’
coordinator Viviane Tavares, these talking points either fuel hate and prejudice or are used
“strategically as smokescreens in the service of agribusiness interests” (Ferreira, 2023). In other
words, incendiary cultural issues or outright hoaxes are injected into the conversation to distract
from illicit logging, land-grabs, and rollbacks of environmental policy.
As the current environment minister, Marina Silva, argued in an interview prior to taking office, digital
disinformation comes in with full force to maintain a deeply unequal economic model that drives
forest destruction (Lazzeri, 2022). Silva – herself a frequent target of online attacks – affirms that fake
news and climate denial are wielded to discredit science and to paint environmentalists as threats
to national sovereignty (Lazzeri, 2022). One recurring false narrative accuses her of wanting to
“internationalize” or even sell the Amazon to foreigners, echoing a trope used against many
conservation efforts (Lazzeri, 2022). By spreading such false claims, powerful interests seek to
undermine public support for pro-conservation policies. Indeed, Silva noted that a “parallel fictional
narrative” had taken hold in some online communities – one in which “Brazil is not suffering from
wildfires or deforestation, despite the data indicating the extreme opposite” (Lazzeri, 2022).
Discussions of the Amazon on Brazilian digital media are polarized and passionate. The rainforest
has become a symbolic battleground in the culture wars: it is a rallying cause for environmental
activism and an object of nationalist fervor and misinformation. For public policy, this means any
effort to protect the Amazon must engage with physical challenges on the ground and with narrative
and information challenges online. In the following section, we examine one of the key digital arenas
where these battles play out: Telegram, an increasingly influential platform in Brazil’s digital
ecosystem
2.2. Telegram and its role in Brazilian digital ecosystem and political
communication
Telegram has emerged as a conduit for political communication and media content in Brazil
(Benevenuto & Melo, 2024; Cavalini et al., 2023; M. Júnior et al., 2022; Tucci & Gouveia, 2025).
Alongside WhatsApp, Telegram stands out as a hybrid social platform with messaging features that
are deeply integrated into daily life in Brazil (Benevenuto & Melo, 2024), thanks to affordable mobile
data plans and the apps’ versatile group and channel features (Tucci, 2023; Tucci & Gouveia, 2025).
By the late 2010s, essentially “everyone with a mobile phone” in Brazil was using WhatsApp (Saboia,
2016) – or increasingly, Telegram (Statista Research Department, 2023) – for everything from family
chats to education and community forums, as well as commercial purposes. Telegram
distinguished itself by offering public channels and super-groups that can gather massive
audiences, far beyond WhatsApp’s group size limits. While WhatsApp capped group chats (initially
at 256, currently at 1,024 members) and restricted message forwarding to curb virality (Greenspan,
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 9
2019), Telegram allowed groups of up to 200,000 users (Telegram, n.d.), enabling a single message
to be broadcast to vast numbers of people.
This design made Telegram especially attractive for activists, influencers, and political operatives
seeking to amplify their message without the constraints of traditional social media platforms
(Rogers, 2020). Telegram’s permissive environment allows the radicalization of some communities.
For instance, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) made use of the app's affordances to catalyze
terrorist mobilization (Shehabat et al., 2017), while Telegram also hosts groups and channels that
function as incubators for conspiracy theories – from QAnon-style fantasies (Urman & Katz, 2022) to
Amazon-related hoaxes (Massarani et al., 2024).
The rise of Telegram in Brazil is closely tied to the country’s recent political turbulence. During the
2018 presidential election, campaign strategists were already exploring Telegram as a tool for mass
messaging and mobilization (Benevenuto & Melo, 2024), although WhatsApp was the dominant force
in that election’s misinformation outbreaks (Benevenuto & Melo, 2024; Santini et al., 2021). In 2021,
political events in the U.S. (Fung, 2021), created a temporary rupture in the relationship between
mainstream digital platforms and political actors associated with extremist discourses. As
mainstream platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube intensified content moderation
measures, many of these actors began to migrate to less regulated environments, with Telegram
emerging as a prominent alternative (Rogers, 2020).
Far-right political actors increasingly relied on Telegram as a mass-communication channel,
particularly as platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp began complying with Brazilian court
orders to remove accounts spreading false information (Brito & Paraguassu, 2022). Numerous
conservative public channels and groups flourished, forming an ecosystem of alternative content
where members share memes, videos, and calls to action (Tucci, 2023; Tucci & Gouveia, 2025).
Researchers mapping these networks found that they functioned as a dense “information disorder”
system circulating aligned content across groups (Cavalini et al., 2023).
By late 2022, Brazilian Telegram chats called for mass demonstrations to overturn the results of the
presidential elections that re-elected Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva. This culminated in the January 8,
2023, attacks in Brasília (often likened to the U.S. Capitol attack), when encrypted messaging groups
were used to organize the anti-democratic invasion of government buildings (Fonseca, 2023;
Nascimento et al., 2022; Prazeres, 2023). In the lead-up, some Telegram channels openly promoted
the event, illustrating how the platform can accelerate extremist coordination. Content that might
remain fringe on open social networks can rapidly circulate in Telegram loops, where users forward
messages across dozens of groups with a few clicks. This virality under encryption poses a
challenge: harmful rumors or propaganda can spread widely through the Telegram sphere before
authorities or fact-checkers notice it.
Telegram’s prominence has not gone unnoticed by institutions. In fact, Brazil became an example of
how governments might respond to an influential but unregulated social platform. In March 2022,
amidst concerns about election misinformation, the Brazilian Supreme Court suspended Telegram
nationwide after it repeatedly ignored court orders to block certain accounts spreading fake news
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 10
(Brito & Paraguassu, 2022). The ban made Telegram’s CEO apologize and comply with Brazilian
judiciary demands (Nicas & Spigariol, 2022). Subsequently, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE)
implemented a program to protect information integrity during the 2022 elections, establishing
partnerships with platforms and civil society (Rubio & Monteiro, 2023). Researchers who monitored
public Telegram groups helped expose networks of misleading content, a proactive measure to
protect the electoral process and democracy in Brazil (Benevenuto & Melo, 2024).
Despite these efforts, tension between Telegram and Brazilian authorities continued. In April 2023,
as Brazil’s Congress debated a landmark bill to regulate digital platforms (known as the Fake News
bill), Telegram inserted itself into the political fray by sending an unsolicited message to all its
Brazilian users, warning that the law would lead to censorship (Tucci, 2023). This provocative move
– essentially lobbying its user base against government policy – prompted another Supreme Court
order and fines against Telegram for spreading misleading information about the bill (STF, 2023). The
incident highlighted how digital platforms can directly leverage their power to influence public
opinion and policy. By 2025, estimates suggested that roughly 20–25 million Brazilians actively use
Telegram (around 38% of internet users), making Brazil one of the app’s largest markets worldwide
(Guan, 2025). Such deep penetration, combined with Telegram’s role in high-stakes political events,
firmly establishes it as a critical element of Brazil’s digital ecosystem.
Telegram in Brazil is one of the many examples of the double-edged nature of digital media’s impact
on society. On one hand, it has enabled communities to form outside the purview of traditional
gatekeepers, giving voice to groups that feel excluded by mainstream media. On the other hand, its
unmoderated interconnected spaces have incubated hate speech, conspiracy theories, and
organized attacks on democratic institutions. Any analysis of Amazon issues on Brazilian Telegram
channels must therefore consider this broader context: the platform as a conduit for passionate,
unfiltered discourse, but also a breeding ground for informational chaos. The complex discourse
surrounding the Amazon rainforest – which intertwines nationalism, environmental urgency, and
global scrutiny – integrates seamlessly into Telegram’s dynamic content ecosystem, characterized
by highly charged and rapidly evolving narratives.
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3. Data and Methods
Applying digital methods (Rogers, 2013, 2024) to Telegram means following the medium – treating
channels, forwards, mentions, and t.me link ecologies as native research signals – and
foregrounding its structural biases. Telegram's broadcast channels with unlimited audiences, low-
friction forwarding, and semi-private group dynamics favor rapid recirculation, admin-centric
authority, and porous public/private boundaries (Peeters & Willaert, 2022; Tucci & Gouveia, 2025).
Our analytical approach operationalizes these platform-specific affordances through topic
framings, forwarding patterns, channel-influence metrics, virality indicators, and cross-platform
circulation tracing, rather than importing external assumptions.
3.1. Building the dataset
Initially, a dataset containing 964 public Portuguese-language Telegram channels was aggregated
from the Telemetr.io (n.d.) repository, comprising 567 Politics and 397 News & Media channels
(Tucci, 2025a). The channels were collected by querying the repository using combined language
and category filters. Telemetr.io provides up to 10 pages of results per query, with 100 channels per
page ranked by audience size, allowing retrieval of a maximum of 1,000 channels per language-
category combination—specifically those with the largest audiences in each category.
The selected collection of channels presents considerable relevance for our study due to its large
audience reach, as indicated by its ranking on the Telemetr.io platform. Additionally, it includes
categories that systematically address political debates, allowing for comprehensive monitoring of
channels that play a significant role in shaping public opinion.
Starting from the list of Portuguese-language channels, we uploaded it to TeleCatch (Ruscica et al.,
2025) and accessed the content and metadata of all chats. Aiming to capture debates about the
Amazon rainforest, we applied a content filter by combining the terms “Amazon” and “Amazonian”
in Portuguese (amazonia/amazônia and amazonica/amazônica) and downloaded the resulting
messages. No date filter was used.
3.2. Data processing
We employed Telegram Analytics (Tucci, 2025b), an R-based pipeline for analyzing Telegram
datasets, to process 39,333 Amazon-related messages extracted from 605 channels. The tool was
used to run popularity analysis, temporal analysis, network analysis, and topic modeling.
We applied Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling to explore thematic structures in the
Telegram dataset. Messages were pre-processed by removing punctuation, numbers, and tokens
shorter than three characters. Stopwords in Portuguese, English, and Spanish were excluded, as
well as the filtering terms. A Document–Term Matrix was built at the message level and used as input
to the LDA model. The number of topics was set to eight, producing probabilistic clusters of co-
occurring terms. For interpretation, we extracted the most representative words for each topic and
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 12
generated visualizations such as word clouds. Each message was then assigned to its most likely
dominant topic.
This approach has limitations: given the long timespan of the dataset, discursive shifts may collapse
into single topics, and short Telegram posts often lack enough context for stable modeling.
Nevertheless, topic modeling provides a useful exploratory lens to identify recurring themes and
map discursive fields across the corpus.
To investigate the linkage between channels and topics over time, a network was constructed using
Gephi software (Bastian et al., 2009). This bipartite network includes two distinct types of nodes: the
monitored Telegram channels and the message topics derived from LDA analysis. Edges connect
each channel to its dominant message topics based on the content it broadcasted. By incorporating
the date of each message, a dynamic temporal network was created, enabling visualization and
analysis of how channel-topic associations evolved from 2015 to 2025. This approach facilitated the
examination of shifting discourse patterns and thematic prominence within the Telegram ecosystem
over this period.
3.3. Study design and analytical workflow
To explore our research question, we need to identify discursive frames (narratives) and network
structures of Amazon biome-related messages circulating within the sample of the Telegram sphere
we observed. Our methodology focuses on two core elements: (i) tracing narratives dissemination
by investigating infrastructural dynamics and channel connections that influence political
discourse, and (ii) examining how Telegram's technical features and usage patterns interact to
shape user perceptions and platform functionality. This approach allows us to understand how the
platform's affordances directly influence observed discourse patterns around environmental
issues.
Our study incorporated a timeline annotation strategy (Basnet et al., 2023; Bruns & Hanusch, 2017;
Neumayer & Rossi, 2016), marking significant media-reported events to contextualize discursive
shifts and network transformations within the observed period. Identified message topics were
systematically analyzed using established methods for topic modeling (Tang et al., 2014) and
discourse mapping in digital environments (Venâncio et al., 2024; Willaert, 2022). Furthermore, the
relationship between channels and topics was mapped through a bipartite network approach,
following best practices in digital network analysis that account for platform-specific affordances
and structural properties (Peeters & Willaert, 2022; Rogers, 2024; Venturini & Latour, 2010).
This integrated methodology enabled a dynamic, temporal exploration of how influential actors and
thematic fields evolved in response to political, media, and platform-based events, yielding insights
into the evolving landscape of Amazon Rainforest communication on Telegram.
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4. Results and Discussion
4.1. The temporal trajectory of Amazon narratives across Telegram
We analyzed 39,333 messages mentioning the Amazon biome shared by 605 channels, posted
between December 2015 and May 2025 (when the dataset was created). Messages generated
almost 60 million views (59,464,010 total); 23,110 contained media; 2,017 were forwards; 283 were
replies. Figure 1 shows the daily message volume evolution. The activity starts near zero, rises
steadily from late 2019, and maintains a higher baseline after 2021, with intermittent sharp spikes.
Variability increases through 2024–2025, indicating more intense and bursty conversations about
the Amazon.
The highest message peak was recorded on March 26, 2025 (293 messages), and corresponds to the
recirculation of links from previous years that praised the Army for various actions — such as
Operation Tucumã, heroic rescues, partnerships to protect Yanomami lands, support for ICMBio,
strategic transportation, and the defense of national security in the Amazon. Although originating
from different dates, all this content was published on that specific day.
Figure 1. Daily Amazon-related message volume on Portuguese-language Telegram channels,
2015 to May 2025. Blue bars on the chart show the number of messages per day across 605 public
channels; the orange curve is a smoothed trend line summarizing long-run change. Source:
Telegram Analytics (Tucci, 2025b)
In 2023, notable surges on August 7, 8, and 9 (132, 199, and 148 messages) correspond to the
Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization Summit in Belém, illustrating the impact of multilateral
environmental diplomacy on public discourse (Watson & Christy Cooney, 2023). The May 20, 2022
peak (155 messages) followed Elon Musk's visit to Brazil, when he and Bolsonaro discussed
expanding satellite internet coverage for remote areas including the Amazon, positioning technology
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 14
as vital for regional development (Stargardter et al., 2022). Peaks in June 2022, especially June 15
(150 messages), reflect intense news coverage and investigation into the murder of Bruno Pereira
and Dom Phillips on June 5. In 2019 (Bonaldo et al., 2022; Nicas et al., 2022), concentrated activity
occurred in late August amid a period of intense forest fires (Skill et al., 2021), with the highest daily
volume (233 messages) on August 23, marking a turning point during Bolsonaro’s first year in office.
To guide our analysis, we chose to verify Brazilian media coverage for mentions of 'amazônica' and
'amazonica'. The results of this search, conducted using Media Cloud (Roberts et al., 2021), are
presented in Figure 2. An initial analysis reveals that Amazon-related topics apparently generate
greater reverberations on Telegram than in traditional media outlets.
The timelines in Figures 1 and 2 indicate coupling between major Amazon events in both media
ecosystems and suggest Telegram increasingly serves as a high-frequency amplifier with its own
internal rhythms. The news media data (Figure 2) reveals a compelling temporal narrative: Amazon-
related debates gained significant momentum in 2018 and surged dramatically in 2019. This
escalation in traditional media coverage occurred during the peak of international scrutiny over the
Amazon fires (reaching a maximum of 1,169 stories on August 23, 2019), when environmental
concerns reached unprecedented levels of global attention (Deutsch & Fletcher, 2022; Skill et al.,
2021). What makes this timing particularly significant is that it coincided with Telegram's nascent
stages of adoption in Brazil – the platform had yet to achieve the widespread penetration it would
later experience in the 2020s (M. Júnior et al., 2022).
Figure 2. Brazilian national news media daily coverage on the Amazon rainforest, attention
over time, 2016 to May 2025. The chart shows the number of stories that match “Amazônia” or
“Amazônica”. Source: Media Cloud - Brazilian National News Sources (167 news outlets)
While news media sites were intensifying their Amazon coverage during Bolsonaro's early
presidency, Telegram was simultaneously emerging as an alternative information space where
different narratives could flourish with less oversight. The platform's subsequent growth into a major
political communication tool (Benevenuto & Melo, 2024; Cavalini et al., 2023; M. Júnior et al., 2022;
Tucci & Gouveia, 2025) suggests that the Amazon discourse we observe on Telegram today
represents the evolution and transformation of 2018-2019 debates within a medium specifically
designed for rapid and unfiltered information sharing. This convergence indicates that Telegram
https://search.mediacloud.org/collections/34412257
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 15
became a repository (Tucci & Gouveia, 2025) for Amazon-related discussions in traditional media
that could now be amplified, reframed, and circulated through new networked pathways.
4.2. Uncovering Amazon rainforest narratives on Telegram through topic
modeling
Figure 3 presents the results of the topic modeling analysis, illustrating eight distinct clusters of
Amazon-related narratives identified in Telegram messages: Platform Cross-Posting, Bolsonaro
Government-centric Environmental Politics, Environmental Risk Monitoring, Diplomatic Agenda,
Geopolitics & Sovereignty, Political News Cycle, Mainstream News Relay, and Securitized Amazon.
Each topic is accompanied by a word cloud showing its most representative terms, along with a brief
thematic description and message count.
The matrix plot shows the yearly evolution of dominant discourse topics in Amazon-related
messages on Portuguese-language Telegram channels from 2015 to 2025. Each colored square
represents the volume of messages classified into one of eight topics. Larger squares indicate higher
proportions of messages for a given topic in that year. The 'NA' column on the right captures
messages that could not be classified into any thematic topic, frequently due to comprising only
emojis or images.
The “NA” (Not Assigned) category includes messages that, after data processing and cleaning, lack
textual content – such as those containing only emojis, images, or other non-textual elements –
which cannot be classified into any specific topic via the method employed. The presence of a
substantial “NA” segment may indicate certain channels or actors primarily disseminate non-verbal
content, such as memes, visual cues, or reaction emojis, instead of substantive discussion.
Despite being unclassified by topic modeling, these “NA” messages still contribute to the overall
discourse landscape. They can be analyzed for their frequency, source channels, and co-occurrence
with textual posts to understand engagement styles or narrative strategies dominated by visual or
symbolic communication. Including these messages in the dataset ensures a more accurate
representation of the full range of communicative practices in the Amazon-related Telegram sphere.
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 16
Figure 3. Topic modeling results on Amazon-related Telegram messages. Timeline indicating
the relative prominence of each of the eight main topics (top), 2015-2025, and description and
most relevant words (bottom). Source: RawGraphs, Wordcloud.
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 17
Evolution of the Amazon‑Related Discourse Network
Over the past decade, the Amazon-related discourse network on Telegram transformed from a
sparse relay system into a densely interconnected and ideologically segmented ecosystem (see
Figure 4). In its early phase (2016), mainstream news outlets and URL aggregators were the primary
hubs, reflecting Telegram’s limited reach and low editorial diversity. This began to change by 2018,
as central nodes like ‘folhadespaulo’ (the channel for one of Brazil’s main traditional news outlets)
and emerging political actors (e.g., politician ‘cirogomes’, or the Workers Party ‘PT’) signaled the
expansion of participation and the growing politicization of the platform.
By 2019, amid Bolsonaro’s presidency and the escalation of Amazon fires, polarization became
pronounced. Pro-government and opposition channels proliferated, each amplifying distinct
narrative clusters: Bolsonaro Government-centric Environmental Politics (topic 1), Securitized
Amazon (topic 6), and Geopolitical Debates (topic 2). Fringe and conspiracy channels found footing
in securitization frames, especially around illegal mining and border issues.
In the years following, network complexity deepened, with 2021 and 2022 marked by the increased
presence of military and influencer channels, and by highly coordinated messaging during key
political and environmental events such as the Amazon Summit and electoral periods. The surge in
cross-posting (topic 8) enabled local Amazonian agendas to be rapidly linked with national and
international debates, evidenced by the rising prominence of regional media and institutional actors
in the network.
From 2023 onward, as Telegram reached nearly 40% penetration among Brazilian internet users
(Kleina, 2025), the platform’s affordances enabled super-groups and coordinated cross-posting to
dominate information flows. Regional and cultural outlets seamlessly integrated local
developments into national discussions, making topic 8 the primary connective cluster. Despite the
rise in rapid news relay (topics 3 & 7) during crises, political polarization endured, with government-
aligned, independent, and indigenous channels competing for narrative space—especially around
topics of risk monitoring (topic 4) and diplomatic agendas (topic 5).
The network structure shows its transformation from a small group of channels that acted as news
aggregators into a graph with polarized communities centered around security and political/partisan
disputes, especially from 2019 onward. This transformation highlights how Telegram’s features —
the ability to track forwarded messages, the perception of anonymity, and the merging of private
messaging with discussion groups and broadcast channels — facilitate rapid recirculation and the
formation of dense ties.
Figure 4 indicates a core of news and media channels gradually surrounded by political and security
clusters, with bridge nodes that translate news into calls to action — a pattern expected when we
“follow the medium” and treat its native signals (forwards, mentions, t.me) as first-order data
(Rogers, 2013, 2024). Recent literature on Telegram in Brazil also points to its role as a high-
frequency amplifier and mobilization infrastructure, whose diffusion grew after 2018 (Cavalini et al.,
2023; Júnior et al., 2022; Tucci & Gouveia, 2025).
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 18
Figure 4. Evolution of Amazon-related discourse network in Portuguese-language Telegram,
2016 to 2025. Source: dynamic graph generated in Gephi (Bastian et al., 2009) using the OpenOrd
layout (Martin et al., 2011). More detailed yearly visualizations and data in https://osf.io/7584k/.
The tension observed between securitization and diplomacy (topics 5 and 6) reflects shifts in
Amazon policies from the Bolsonaro cycle to the Lula cycle — that is, oscillations between
operational/combat repertoires (illegal mining, border control, Armed Forces) and
cooperation/climate repertoires (COP, summits, Belém), often mediated by bridge actors who
translate framings from one field to another. This type of environment fosters disinformation: the
https://osf.io/7584k/
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 19
combination of echo chambers (community homophily), cross-platform recirculation, and
coordinated “peaks” can sustain inaccurate or denialist narratives, even within an ecosystem of
diverse actors.
This result aligns with recent mappings of socio-environmental disinformation in Brazil, which
describe both the political instrumentalization of the media around the Amazon and the need for
platform governance and evidence-based interventions (Ferreira, 2023; Intervozes, 2023; UNESCO,
2023). Regulatory episodes involving Telegram in Brazil — such as the court-ordered blocks in 2022
— reinforce that the platform is now a critical infrastructure of public debate and, therefore, a
relevant target for information integrity policies (Nicas & Spigariol, 2022). The network dynamics in
Figure 4 capture “who talks to whom” and how security and climate framings compete and reinforce
each other in a digital environment that amplifies speed, reach, and recontextualization.
5. Conclusion
In addition to the well-publicized ecological risks involving the Amazon— such as savannization, loss
of forest cover, and climate extremes — there is growing evidence that the climate crisis can trigger
or reinforce negative social tipping points, including polarization, distrust, anomie, displacement,
and conflict. According to Spaiser et al. (2024), when extreme environmental events or ongoing
degradation exceed certain thresholds, these social dynamics feed back into natural systems,
weakening mitigation measures, eroding trust in science and institutions, and fostering narratives of
denial or climate skepticism.
The discourse about the Amazon on Telegram cannot be separated from the broader contexts of
media and public policy. Over the past decade, Brazil has witnessed an informational struggle over
the Amazon — a dispute in which WhatsApp group networks, forwarded messages on Telegram,
YouTube livestreams, and Twitter/X threads have become as impactful as official reports or
newspaper editorials. Topics such as deforestation, Indigenous rights, climate change, and national
sovereignty have been refracted through the lens of social media, often generating more conflict
than understanding.
The digital debate has concrete implications for climate action: it can legitimize harmful policies or
drive public demand for environmental protection. Through the analysis of 39,000 Telegram
messages, we explored how these trends manifest in the content shared across hundreds of
channels. This work evaluates temporal trends, thematic clusters, influential actors, and network
structures in conversations about the Amazon on Telegram. By investigating the interaction between
facts, influence, and narrative framings in these messages — within the context of Brazilian politics
and media — we contribute to understanding how digital communication is shaping the future of the
Amazon.
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 20
Protecting the Amazon Rainforest is not just a matter of enforcing laws on the ground; it also involves
engaging public opinion in support of evidence-based environmental conservation efforts. The
challenge for policymakers and civil society is to harness the constructive potential of platforms like
Telegram — such as informing and mobilizing — while mitigating the risks of disinformation and
polarization. Considering the growing hybridization of online and offline public spheres, the future of
the Amazon may, in part, be shaped by the dynamics of the digital debate.
Thus, public policies for the Amazon region must go beyond reducing deforestation or emissions. It
is equally urgent to strengthen social cohesion, institutional capacity, public dialogue, climate
literacy, digital governance mechanisms, and information integrity, in order to prevent negative
social tipping points. Digital platforms play a dual role: they can be spaces of contestation and
disinformation, but also arenas for building resilient narratives. Understanding how these narratives
circulate and influence perceptions and behaviors enables the design of broader interventions that
consider not only environmental impacts but also the social thresholds that condition collective
action in response to the Amazon crisis. The data and analyses presented in this working paper aim
to contribute to a clearer understanding of these patterns and their possible implications.
Future research may explore two paths. First, investigating how influencers and key channels on
Telegram build or dismantle public trust in science and environmental policies, analyzing the
mechanisms through which scientific authority is mobilized or contested in their messages.
Additionally, understanding the complex dynamics between digital engagement — encompassing
social curiosity, mobilization, and activism — and concrete action, examining whether online
campaigns and debates effectively translate into public conservation movements or political
pressure.
Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 21
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Carneiro & Tucci The Amazon Biome in Messages 28
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
This working paper was prepared by the digital innovations team of CGIAR Climate Security: Bia
Carneiro, Research Team Leader (b.carneiro@cgiar.org), Giulia Tucci, Digital Methods Specialist.
The analysis presented in this study is based on research developed as part of our team’s
contribution to the Brazil Chapter of the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate
Change (https://integridadeclima.org)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was carried out with support of the CGIAR Science Program on Climate Action and the
CGIAR Science Program on Food Frontiers and Security. We would like to thank all funders who
supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund
(https://www.cgiar.org/funders/ ).
We would like to thank Giosuè Ruscica for support with data collection.
Cover image: @2021 CIAT/Juan Pablo Marin García
This work is part of the CGIAR Science Program on Climate Action, Area of Work 1 (Prioritization and Coordination of Climate Action) and the CGIAR
Science Program on Food Frontiers and Security, AoW 2 (Fragile and Conflict-affected Food Systems). CGIAR Climate Security prepared this
publication.
This working paper presents ongoing research and has not been peer reviewed. Any opinions stated herein are those of the author(s) and not
necessarily representative of or endorsed by CGIAR or the Alliance.
ALLIANCE OF BIOVERSITY INTERNATIONAL AND CIAT
Food systems and landscapes that sustain the planet, drive prosperity and nourish people.
The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT is a CGIAR Research Center
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© 2025 Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (IFPRI). This publication is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License (CC BY 4.0). To view this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0.
mailto:m.mastrorillo@cgiar.org
https://integridadeclima.org/
https://www.cgiar.org/funders/
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Key messages
◆ Telegram is a Central Arena for Amazon-Related Discourse
The platform has evolved into a major space for environmental and political communication in Brazil. Amazon-related messages on Telegram surged after 2019, often outpacing traditional media in volume and intensity, especially during crises like forest...
◆ Disinformation Undermines Climate Action
The spread of misinformation—especially denialist and conspiratorial content—on Telegram distorts public understanding of Amazon issues. This undermines trust in science, delays policy responses, and reinforces harmful narratives that serve vested int...
◆ Digital Virality Amplifies Strategic Messaging
Coordinated cross-posting and forwarding behaviors allow actors to rapidly disseminate content across large audiences. This infrastructure enables both genuine mobilization and manipulative campaigns, making Telegram a powerful tool for shaping public...
◆ Policy Must Address Both Ecological and Informational Integrity
Protecting the Amazon requires not only physical conservation efforts but also strategies to counter digital disinformation. Strengthening climate literacy, public dialogue, and platform governance is essential to prevent negative social tipping point...
1. Introduction
2.1 Representations of the Amazon biome in the Brazilian digital ecosystem and political discourse
2.2. Telegram and its role in Brazilian digital ecosystem and political communication
3. Data and Methods
3.1. Building the dataset
3.2. Data processing
3.3. Study design and analytical workflow
4. Results and Discussion
4.1. The temporal trajectory of Amazon narratives across Telegram
4.2. Uncovering Amazon rainforest narratives on Telegram through topic modeling
Evolution of the Amazon‐Related Discourse Network
5. Conclusion
References
About the Authors
Acknowledgments