January 2021

Diese sollen zu Gewalt aufgerufen haben und offen rechtsextreme Ideologien wie die Rassenlehre verbreitet haben. In Folge des gewaltsamen Sturms auf das US-Kapitol machten sich soziale Netzwerke wie Facebook und Twitter sehr schnell daran, Postings wegen Gewaltaufrufen und Falschmeldungen zu löschen. Nun beginnt auch der Messenger Telegram, härter gegen Rechtsextreme vorzugehen und löscht mehrere öffentliche Gruppen wegen Gewaltaufrufen. “In den letzten 24 Stunden haben wir dutzende öffentliche Kanäle geblockt, die offensichtlich Gewaltaufrufe an tausende Abonnenten verschickten”, sagte Telegram-Sprecher Mike Ravdonikas gegenüber “Techcrunch”. Die meisten gesperrten Accounts sollen dabei jedoch nicht auf die US-Politik oder Pro-Trump-Verschwörungserzählungen fokussiert gewesen sein. Viel eher wurden offen rechtsextreme Ideologien wie zum Beispiel die Rassenlehre angepriesen. Einige der gelöschten Gruppen sollen jedoch Backups erstellt haben und bereits versuchen, ihre Anhänger auf anderen Plattformen zu erreichen. Außerdem sollen die Betreiber Empfehlungen gegeben haben, wo man sich in Zukunft austauschen könne, falls bisherige Gruppen und Konten gesperrt werden, so “Heise”.

via standard: Messenger-App Telegram löscht dutzende rechtsextreme Gruppenchats

siehe auch: Telegram blocks ‘dozens’ of hardcore hate channels threatening violence. With many social networks suddenly reevaluating their policies in light of recent political violence in the U.S., the popular messaging app Telegram has begun chipping away at an organized network of neo-Nazi and white supremacist accounts flourishing on the platform. Telegram confirmed to TechCrunch that it has removed dozens of channels over the course of the last day, citing concerns that the accounts were inciting violence. “Our Terms of Service expressly forbid public calls to violence,” Telegram spokesperson Mike Ravdonikas told TechCrunch. “…In the past 24 hours we have blocked dozens of public channels that published calls to violence for thousands of subscribers.” Asked if those takedowns relate to last week’s violent siege of the U.S. Capitol, Ravdonikas said that Telegram will “examine all incoming reports” and that the company is “monitoring the current situation closely.” The company confirmed that a number of accounts TechCrunch had previously observed promoting white supremacy, Nazi iconography and other forms of far-right extremism were part of the new enforcement action, which is still expanding. Some of the blocked channels were still viewable on Telegram’s web client Wednesday.
One of those now-removed groups bemoaned Telegram’s bans Tuesday in a post displaying a Nazi flag and the warning “you can’t kill an idea.” Prior to being taken down, that channel boasted more than 10,000 followers. Many extremist channels began publicizing backup accounts Tuesday, pointing subscribers to dozens of other groups where they could continue to gather. Other sympathetic channels chronicled the bans in real-time, posting screenshots documenting violations of Telegram’s terms of service. The cluster of far-right accounts Telegram closed were largely not focused on mainstream U.S. politics or pro-Trump conspiracies. Some of the channels even spoke derisively of QAnon’s outlandish beliefs, dismissing them as a distraction. Many of the channels openly advocated for racial purity through strategic tactics, some gleaned through guides to guerrilla warfare and other texts admins provided for users through Telegram’s hosted files feature. One account advertised itself as “The Neo-Nazi Accelerationists your girlfriend told you not to worry about.” Telegram’s new batch of takedowns appears to be connected to an effort by self-described anti-fascist and activist Gwen Snyder, who marshaled Twitter users in a “mass-reporting campaign” following last week’s violent invasion of the U.S. Capitol. “For years, we’ve been tracking these Nazi Terrorgram channels and reporting horrendous, explicit calls to racist violence and insurrection, and Telegram did nothing,” Snyder told TechCrunch, noting that the new wave of reporting sought to shame the company into action.