Current:Home > ContactOliver James Montgomery-The Telegram app has been a key platform for Hamas. Now it's being restricted there -GrowthInsight
Oliver James Montgomery-The Telegram app has been a key platform for Hamas. Now it's being restricted there
Oliver James Montgomery View
Date:2025-04-09 22:31:59
Telegram,Oliver James Montgomery the popular messaging app, has blocked a number of channels with ties to Hamas. The move followed Apple and Google coming under pressure from outside groups to force Telegram to block channels that violated the tech giants' terms of service.
While accounts related to Hamas have been banned across most other major social networks, Telegram has emerged as one of Hamas' central platforms, thanks to the company's unfiltered approach to social media, allowing first-person accounts of the brutal Israel-Hamas war to spread widely.
Some of the channels amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers and sent out graphic images and videos of the war, in addition to calls to action from Hamas members.
Telegram removes Hamas channels after pressure from advocacy group
Last week, the pro-Israel Zachor Legal Institute sent Apple a letter pointing out seven accounts with connections to Hamas that were still available on Telegram for Apple users, while Telegram had removed them for Android devices.
The group pleaded with Apple to force Telegram to also remove the channels from being available on iPhones and other Apple devices.
Less than 24 hours later, Telegram banned on Apple devices four of the seven channels Zachor Legal Institute highlighted, including Qassam Brigades, a channel dedicated to Hamas' military wing that had more than 700,000 subscribers and an account known as Spokesman_ 2020 that had more than 500,000 followers.
But three other channels with links to Hamas, which together have nearly 1 million subscribers, were still active Telegram channels on iPhones.
It is not clear why Telegram disallowed some Hamas channels and let others remain. A spokesman for Telegram did not return a request for comment.
Whether Apple applied pressure on Telegram to remove the channels is uncertain; Apple has not responded to multiple requests for comment. But Zachor Legal Institute says it believes Apple was responding to its demands.
"Hamas uses these channels as psychological terror tools to influence Western public," said Ron Machol, Zachor Legal Institute's Chief Operating Officer.
A spokesman for Google would not confirm whether it asked Telegram to remove Hamas channels, but pointed to the company's app store policies which require that apps moderate content that celebrates terrorist attacks or promotes violence.
"When violations are found we take appropriate action," a Google spokesman said.
Telegram crackdown follows CEO's prior defense of Hamas-linked channels
The decision to ban Hamas-aligned channels came despite Telegram CEO Pavel Durov's longtime support of keeping the channels open and free of content policing.
Durov, a Russian-born tech mogul who is now based in Dubai, has argued on his platform that the Hamas channels have provided an important source of information about the war.
Earlier this month, Durov said in a Telegram message that Hamas has used channels on his platform to warn Palestinian civilians about looming missile strikes.
"Would shutting down their channel help save lives — or would it endanger more lives? While it would be easy for us to destroy this source of information, doing so risks exacerbating an already dire situation," he wrote.
Meta, Google and X, formerly Twitter, block all accounts with links to Hamas.
Telegram's more hands-free approach to moderating Hamas has led to a surge in subscribers.
For instance, the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab found that a channel dedicated to Hamas' military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, grew to more than 600,000 since the war started, more than tripling its number of subscribers.
Gaza Now, another Hamas-aligned channel, had 350,000 followers when the war broke out, now has nearly 2 million subscribers. It often reposts Hamas posts, and the channel is available on both Apple and Google devices.
Critics of Telegram have for weeks called on the company to remove Hamas accounts, arguing that the platform is amplifying terrorist propaganda and being used to defend grisly acts of violence.
Being in violation of Apple and Google's app store rules could result in an app being removed from the mobile app stores both companies control. Both Apple and Google have rules against apps that promote violence.
Being kicked out Apple and Google's app stores would make it impossible for new users to download the app, and it would also slowly cripple the functionality of the service since Telegram would have no way to send its 800 million monthly active users software updates.
veryGood! (527)
Related
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- Derek Hough reveals wife Hayley Erbert underwent emergency surgery for 'cranial hematoma'
- Texas deputies confronted but didn’t arrest fatal shooting suspect in August, a month before new law
- McDonald's is opening a new chain called CosMc's. Here are the locations and menu.
- Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
- If Shohei Ohtani signs with Dodgers, pitcher says he'd change uniform numbers
- LeBron James, Bucks among favorites as NBA's wildly successful In-Season tourney concludes
- US touts new era of collaboration with Native American tribes to manage public lands and water
- Louvre will undergo expansion and restoration project, Macron says
- US touts new era of collaboration with Native American tribes to manage public lands and water
Ranking
- Which apps offer encrypted messaging? How to switch and what to know after feds’ warning
- Georgia lawmakers send redrawn congressional map keeping 9-5 Republican edge to judge for approval
- Denny Laine, Moody Blues and Wings co-founder, dies at age 79
- Saudi Royal Air Force F-15SA fighter jet crashes, killing 2 crew members aboard
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
- Houston has a population that’s young. Its next mayor, set to be elected in a runoff, won’t be
- New York Yankees World Series odds drastically improve after Juan Soto trade
- 'Succession' star Alan Ruck sued for multi-car collision that ended in pizza shop crash
Recommendation
Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
Bronny James expected to make USC debut Sunday against Long Beach State
Panthers TE Hayden Hurst details 'scary' post-traumatic amnesia diagnosis
Why Prince Harry Says He and Meghan Markle Can't Keep Their Kids Safe in the U.K.
Travis Hunter, the 2
BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri apologizes after flipping the middle finger live on air
Lithium at California's Salton Sea could power millions of electric vehicles: Report
White House proposes to 'march in' on patents for costly drugs