When someone puts you in the pillory on Telegram, with a defamation or harassment campaign, the first reaction is to make everything disappear as fast as possible. But first it is worth saving what you need: a closed channel or a deleted message can no longer be shown to investigators. It takes less time than it seems.
1. Export chats with Telegram Desktop
The computer app (Windows, Mac or Linux) can save a whole conversation to a file.
- Open the chat, group or channel.
- Click the three dots at the top right and choose Export chat history.
- Choose the JSON format (you can add HTML too, which is easier to read) and include photos and files.
- Save the folder that is created without changing it.
For each message, the JSON file contains the date, the time and the numeric ID of whoever wrote it. The name and username of an account can be changed at any time; the numeric ID cannot. It is the most useful piece of information to give in a report.
2. Take complete screenshots
For channels and groups you cannot export, take screenshots that show:
- the name of the channel or group and, if possible, the
t.me/...link; - the date and time of the message;
- the full text and the images.
Also save the link to every important message: in Telegram Desktop you get it with right-click › Copy link.
3. Keep a log
A simple spreadsheet, one row for each piece of evidence, in time order:
| Date and time | Platform | Account or channel (ID) | What it contains | File |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12.03 22:14 | Telegram | ID 5xxxxxxxxx | Threat to family members | export_chat.json |
Investigators read dozens of cases: a tidy log immediately shows how serious and how repeated the facts are.
4. Protect the copies
- Keep the original intact and work on a copy.
- Keep a second copy on an external drive or in a cloud protected by two-step verification.
- If you want to show that a file has not been modified, you can calculate its digital fingerprint (hash). On Windows:
certutil -hashfile filename SHA256; on Mac:shasum -a 256 filename. Note the result in the log.
For the most important evidence, your lawyer can have a forensic copy made by an IT consultant: it carries more weight in court than a screenshot.
What not to do
- Do not delete chats and do not block accounts before you have saved everything.
- Do not modify the exported files.
- Do not forward intimate images, not even to report them. If they involve minors, report them only to the police (in Italy, the Polizia Postale).
- Do not join groups with fake profiles to collect more material: you risk compromising the evidence and committing an offence yourself.
With the evidence saved, you can report the content to the platform and file a report with the police. The organisations listed in Who can help you can help you do it.