The messaging app Telegram has restricted access to channels belonging to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in order to limit the group's influence online after pressure from critics amid the ongoing war Israel declared against it.
CNBC first reported and verified the ban on the official channel of Hamas (hamas_com) and its militant wing (al-Qassam Brigades) for Android users.
It was not clear whether the firm had done the same on iOS.
Those trying to access the channels would be met with a message that read, "Unfortunately, this channel can't be displayed on Telegram apps downloaded from the Google Play Store."
However, some other Hamas-linked channels, like Gaza Now - which has over 1.6 million subscribers - remain accessible on Telegram.
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov previously resisted calls to remove Hamas's presence on the app, stating that the group has been a crucial source of information about the war.
In an October 13 post, he said that Telegram's moderators and artificial intelligence tools removed millions of posts related to the war that are "obviously harmful" every day, but also insisted that "tackling war-related coverage is seldom obvious."
"Would shutting down their channel help save lives - or would it endanger more lives?" the Russian-born tech founder said. "While it would be easy for us to destroy this source of information, doing so risks exacerbating an already dire situation."
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Preventing the Spread of Terror Online
Since its attack in southern Israel on October 7, the Gaza-based terror group has used social media to spread its message through its footage of Hamas fighters shooting and mutilating Israeli and foreign civilians and taking some of them hostage.
The move was similar to what happened following the Russian invasion of Ukraine when social media firms like Meta, Google, and Twitter - now known as X - came under similar pressure to crack down on pro-Russian propaganda and misinformation on their platforms.
The Wagner Group, the Russian state-funded military contractor agency headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin until his death a few months ago.
Since the October 7 Hamas raid, the European Union sent several warnings to X, Meta, and TikTok, warning then that they might face investigations and potential penalties under the Digital Services Act, a landmark piece of regulation requiring tech companies to clean their platforms of illegal and harmful content if they do not do enough to eradicate misinformation and disinformation surrounding the Israel-Hamas War.
Previously, Hamas previously used Telegram to "warn civilians in Ashkelon to leave the area ahead of their missile strikes," Durov added.
On the other hand, Instagram previously shadowbanned Palestinian accounts and their content.
