Dear AoIR community, In the spirit of ongoing ethical online data collection and research issues, I'd like to ask if anyone has ever dealt with ethics permissions for research on the messaging platform Telegram. As it is a messenger service, even chats that are in essence "public" still require the researcher to register for a Telegram account and provide a phone number, so one might argue this is an obstacle for interpreting the channels as truly "public". Have any of you grappled with this issue (on Telegram or other similar platforms, e.g. WhatsApp or Viber) and how have you dealt with ethics clearance at your institutions regarding whether this data or these channels can be construed as public or private? I'd really appreciate any experience you could share. Many thanks! Best, Tanya -- Dr Tanya Lokot Lecturer, School of Communications, Dublin City University O +353 1 7008595 tanya.lokot@dcu.ie Twitter: @TanyaLokot