Telegram, the encrypted messaging application, has quietly restricted access to several channels affiliated with the Palestinian armed group Hamas.
The official Hamas account, the account of its armed wing the Qassam Brigades and the Gaza Now news account are no longer accessible on versions of Telegram downloaded from Google Play or the Apple App Store since last week.
The accounts, which have amassed hundreds of thousands of new followers since Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7, are still accessible from the online version of Telegram and the version of the app downloaded directly from the Telegram website.
Although Telegram has not publicly commented on the reasons for the decision, the restrictions emerged after the Zachor Legal Institute, a US-based advocacy group that campaigns against “anti-Israel movements”, wrote the last week a letter to Apple highlighting that seven Hamas members Linked accounts remained accessible on iOS despite being blocked for Android users.
Apple and Telegram did not respond to requests for comment, but Google told Al Jazeera in a statement that Google Play requires apps that feature user-generated content to moderate “egregious content, including content that promotes terrorist acts, incite violence or celebrate terrorist attacks.” “.
Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, is considered a “terrorist” organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan and Paraguay.
Telegram has been widely used by Hamas to promote its message and has used the app to broadcast real-time violent videos and images of its attacks on communities in southern Israel. Other armed groups such as ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda have also used Telegram, known for its hands-off moderation, to promote their ideology and claim responsibility for their attacks.
“Telegram served a purpose for Hamas that day and every day since, because it lacks moderation policies and these lax rules allow militant groups to upload graphic images of the carnage in which they participate, then that content will be filtered to other places on the internet like
The official channels of the Qassam Brigades and Hamas added nearly half a million and 100,000 subscribers, respectively, after the October 7 attacks.
Gaza Now – described as “Hamas-aligned” by the Atlantic Council – grew from 343,506 subscribers to nearly 1.9 million.
Since the introduction of restrictions on the Google Play and App Store versions of Telegram, the channels have lost between 10,000 and 80,000 subscribers.
Mashkoor said Hamas’s status as Gaza’s government sets it apart from armed groups like ISIL, even though both can share violent content through channels like Telegram.
“The facts are the facts and they are officially a representative group of Gaza and that demands that conversations about how we treat the leaders or state officials be taken into account, but of course the other element that must be taken into account (is) the graph. nature and violence and how to balance that – which is a really difficult thing to figure out,” she said.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov defended the platform’s lax moderation policies, arguing that it has provided valuable information about the war between Israel and Hamas and is less likely to spread harmful content than its competitors, as users must subscribe to channels.
“As such, it is unlikely that Telegram channels can be used to significantly amplify propaganda,” Durov said in a post on Telegram earlier this month, adding that moderators remove millions of pieces of content every day harmful.
“Instead, they provide a single source of first-hand information for researchers, journalists and fact-checkers. Although it would be easy for us to destroy this source of information, it would risk making an already dire situation worse.”
However, Hamas appears to be preparing for its possible withdrawal from Telegram and has asked its supporters to download a special dedicated application.
Mashkoor said smaller channels that carry information from major Hamas accounts could also ensure their message continues to circulate even if Telegram cracks down on the group.
“Most platforms have a policy of prohibiting the hosting of content from designated terrorist organizations, so efforts to control the spread of this content will always begin with the source channels,” she said.
