A new report shows that channels devoted to anti-Jewish conspiracy theories are growing at an alarming rate. Why won’t the platform take action? IN THE PAST few months, Telegram has skyrocketed in popularity, hitting 550 million monthly active users in July 2021, which makes it the fifth-most-used messaging app in the world. And as a wave of government-mandated internet shutdowns washes over the world, the app has been praised for its resistance to censorship and its role in helping protesters from Belarus to Myanmar organize. But Telegram’s libertarian ethos has a darker side, says the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate: The app is one of the vilest pits of anti-Semitism you can find on the internet. And the problem is growing worse by the day. A new report from Hope Not Hate, focused on the spread of anti-Semitism online and due to be published in full today, has found that Telegram is foremost among major internet platforms in providing a “safe haven” for anti-Semites and extremists who have been booted from other social networks. This notably includes believers and peddlers of QAnon, the anti-Semitism-suffused conspiracy theory linked to the January 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol.
The report points out that several channels devoted to anti-Semitic conspiracism, or to straight-up violent anti-Semitic content, have grown dramatically in 2021—quite unimpeded by Telegram’s moderation. One of these, Dismantling the Cabal, which trafficks in the New World Order conspiracy theory that launched in February 2021, has to date gained over 90,000 followers; another, run by an anti-semitic QAnon advocate dubbed GhostEzra, has garnered a following of 333,000. Hope Not Hate also found that at least 120 Telegram groups and channels have shared the racist, anti-Semitic manifesto penned by the terrorist who attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019, killing 51. Telegram has taken no action against that content. Telegram’s press office did not respond to a request for comment
via wired: Telegram Is Becoming a Cesspool of Anti-Semitic Content