Telegram booting far-right groups from their hub proves that platforms can, in fact, help curb terrorist recruitment in the internet age. In March 2019, amid the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre, the far right made a collective migration from an array of messenger platforms and discussion boards to the messaging app Telegram. On their new home—the same one ISIS adopted as its digital headquarters in 2015—neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups steadily grew their audiences by the thousands. The Russian-founded, UK-based Telegram connected different far-right communities, helping to bring far more organization to the movement as a whole. Despite repeated reporting about this trend, neo-Nazis on Telegram called for attacks on Jews, law enforcement, and minorities, and gave instructions how to do so, with no substantial counteraction. Far-right terrorist channels and groups—which they self-declare as “Terrorgram”—got to act like ISIS but saw none of the same consequences. But amid emerging stories of neo-Nazi National Guard and Army personnel networking and plotting attacks on Telegram, the company is now taking thorough action against some of the most prominent and violence-promoting entities on its platform. Among the first hit was Terrorwave Refined. The group maintains ties to organizations like Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi paramilitary group, and Atomwaffen Division, a US-based neo-Nazi paramilitary group that is now largely defunct. Terrorwave was in many ways the central hub of the far right. It had all the invite links to other far-right Telegram channels and gave giant subscriber boosts to the channels it promoted. Its subscribers had doubled from 3,000 in December to nearly 6,000 by late June. At that time, Telegram deleted not just Terrorwave’s main channel but also the backups it had created for sporadic removals. The platform also booted others, including Misanthropic Division, the militant wing of the Azov Battalion, and RapeKrieg, a vile Satanist neo-Nazi group. (…) Given the timing of Telegram’s new purge campaign, the far right doesn’t have too many options. Its groups and commentators have already gotten the boot from major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as alternative ones like Discord and 4chan. Even free-speech-billed sites like Gab and Minds have ousted the most outwardly extremist examples among them. As for Parler, the free-speech platform boosted by high-profile Trump campaign officials and allies in recent weeks, neo-Nazi extremists are skeptical. “Parler is kikeshit,” as one wrote, suggesting that those from the far right would be “tagged, tracked, ID’d, and financially crushed.”
via wired: Neo-Nazis Are Running Out of Places to Hide Online