After the closure of the Parler network, Telegram is now at the center
of controversy. Instant messaging has been taken over by extremist users
and accused of hosting hateful content. Under the influence of a
complaint, it is Apple who pays the price.
After the attempted
intrusion of the Capitol on January 6, some social networks, including
Twitter, decided to ban Donald Trump from their platforms, accused of
posting messages inciting violence. The supporters of the outgoing
president are said to have organized themselves in particular on the
Parler network, which was first withdrawn from the App Store, the Play
Store and then quite simply Amazon servers. The users in question would
then have migrated to Telegram.
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Telegram, the new HQ of extremists
Facing the recent downtime of
Speak, pro-Trump activists appear to have massively downloaded the
Telegram messaging app to create discussion groups there. The editor of
the messaging was also forced to remove dozens of public channels in
which members exchanged 'hateful' comments.
However, if Apple has
decided to remove Parler from its downloads platform, it has chosen to
keep Telegram on its App Store. And this decision does not please the
members of the American nonprofit Coalition for a Safer Web.
Coalition
for a Safer Web believes that the members of the discussion groups
hosted on Telegram made neo-Nazi remarks promoting the supremacy of the
'white race'. They were therefore in violation of the rules of the Apple
App Store, like Parler whose firm Tim Cook explained that it
represented 'threats of violence and illegal activities'.
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Apple's inaction called into question
According to Apple Insider,
Coalition for a Safer Web has therefore launched actions against Apple,
accused of not having banned Telegram messaging from its application
store, and therefore, in other words, of having applied differentiated
treatment for two messaging applications in its Store. According to the
association, there is indeed no reason to continue supporting Telegram,
messaging has also become a means of spreading hateful content. The
complainants have also already warned Apple last June as to the nature
of the discussions within the public groups of Telegram.
Still,
Telegram still took the situation in hand by removing the affected
message channels. Parler has always been reluctant to filter the content
of messages published on its social network; however, it is only by
setting up an effective moderation policy that the network will be able
to find its place on the Apple application store, as Tim Cook explained
recently.
Telegram, for its part, is also still available on
Google's PlayStore. An action is also planned against the giant.
Finally, it should be noted that, although the service is also available
on the Windows Store, Microsoft seems a priori spared by the actions of
Coalition for a Safer Web.
Telegram and iPhone users, rest
assured: in case Apple decides to give in to this pressure and ban
messaging from its AppStore, its founder, Pavel Durov, explained that
teams are currently working on a web application that will be therefore
available through the Safari browser.
Source : Apple Insider
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