Extremist groups like the Proud Boys have resumed using the app [Telegram] to recruit......
Seems the crackdown immediately after jan 6, had little or no effect. damn.
Now other hate groups are up and running.
After the Capitol Insurrection, Telegram Moved to Ban White Nationalists. Today, It’s a Different Story.
Extremist groups like the Proud Boys have resumed using the app to recruit.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/02/telegram-capitol-insurrection/?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=naytev&utm_medium=social
Ali Breland 2/23/2021
For a moment last month, it looked like Telegram was finally doing something about its neo-Nazi problem. The secure messaging app, whose largely untraceable platform has laudably provided a safe haven of communication for people in autocratic countries even under government pressure, has also proven popular among racists who have been kicked off other platforms. Telegram largely did nothing about those users until last month, when, shortly after the January 6 riot at the Capitol, the company finally started taking down white supremacist and neo-Nazi channels, the app’s term for public-facing chat groups which, similar to Twitter, allow creators to send messages to anyone who signs up.
“Banned groups just immediately reformed and gained back huge numbers.”
But within weeks, Telegram appears to have lost its sudden interest in banning white supremacists, according to researchers monitoring the platform. “A lot of the banned groups just immediately reformed and gained back huge numbers of their followers,” says Emmi Bevensee, a Mozilla Open Web Fellow and PhD student at the University of Arizona who tracks extremism online. “The terrorgram channels particularly are extremely agile,” Bevensee said, referring to the loose network of Telegram channels where pro-Nazi, anti-semitic memes using glitchwave and cyberpunk aesthetics are shared.
Bevensee and Max Aliapoulios, a PhD student at New York University studying cybersecurity, who are both contributors to the Social Media Analysis Toolkit, say there’s evidence to suggest Telegram’s limited actions had little effect. After looking at data they pulled from the platform, Bevensee said, “we did not notice a dramatic change in the volume of hate and conspiracies on Telegram in the time surrounding enforcement,” caveating that while their data sets were comprehensive, it’s possible that they missed some far-right channels.
Other researchers who track extremism online, including Marc-André Argentino, a PhD candidate at Concordia University, and activist Gwen Snyder reported similar patterns of users of banned channels quickly regrouping elsewhere on Telegram..........................................
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