Administrators of the encrypted messaging app Telegram were booting off a gradually increasing number of jihadist channels at the same time as the Islamist regime of the Taliban was taking control of Afghanistan.
Telegram has an account called “ISIS Watch” on which it advises how many Islamic State-linked jihadi groups or channels it has kicked off its services.
European law enforcement body Europol began a joint referral program with Telegram in 2019 to remove accounts that were being used by IS adherents to plan and execute acts of extreme violence when it became clear that jihadists had taken to using the platform. Telegram’s encryption allows members to hide from intelligence agencies.
The number of accounts removed recently increased over three days, during which news of the likely return of the non-IS Taliban in Afghanistan began to spread.
On Friday, August 13, 749 IS-related accounts were taken down by Telegram, and 856 the following day.
Telegram also deleted 927 accounts on August 15 — the day the Taliban had begun surrounding Kabul. The number of booted accounts dropped to 527 when the Taliban took over Kabul on Monday.
Telegram keeps a tally of channels that have been nixed, and by August 16 it had booted 9419 channels affiliated in some way with IS propaganda or activity.
Jihadist accounts are not the only ones being affected by Telegram measures — it is becoming harder to find prominent Australian far-right accounts too. It is now apparently impossible for people to find the account of one of Australia’s biggest groups (which Crikey has chosen not to name) that Telegram took action on.
The account’s numbers have declined in the months since, losing almost 1000 followers — from 7032 subscribers on June 16 to 6063 on August 18.
However, there are signs the platform’s moves are not enough. Another account established by the group to circumvent the block had 1123 subscribers on August 18, up from 820 subscribers on June 21.
Well done Telegram. Now, how about doing the same with the other end of the spectrum, by getting rid of extreme Right Wing groups, Fascists, and White Supremacists. And then what about Conspiracy Groups spreading dangerous misinformation.
The issue or reason for complacency in removing far/alt right, white nationalist etc. groups or content from social media etc. is that the literature or sources of ideas from the past are shared by mainstream media and politics; Anglo or WASP exceptionalism informed by eugenics with a radical right libertarian socio-economic ideology dependent upon such agitprop.
Betcha they have read “mein kamp” and looked at how any opposition was slowly removed. Bloody zealots!