The Gaza Now Channel: A Threat to the Security and Security of the Internet and to Google, and a Violation of the Israeli Law Institute
The pro-Israel law institute wrote a letter to Apple, pointing out seven accounts that weren’t deleted for Telegram for Apple users and that were still linked to Hamas.
Gaza Now had 350,000 followers when the war broke out, and now has 2 million subscribers. It’s available on both Apple and GOOGLE devices, and it frequently reposts Hamas posts.
Ron Machol said that hamas uses these channels as “psychological terror tools” to influence Western public.
Durov said in a Telegram message that Hamas has used his platform to warn Palestinian civilians about missile strikes.
“Would shutting down their channel help save lives — or would it endanger more lives? It would be possible for us to destroy this source of information, but doing so would make the situation worse.
Being in violation of the rules for the mobile app stores of Apple and Google could lead to the removal of an app from those stores. Both Apple and Google have rules against apps that promote violence.
Being kicked out of Apple and Google’s app stores would cause it to be impossible for new users to download the app, as well as causing the service to be crippled by not having a way to deliver software updates to its 800 million active users.
The morning of October 7: Maria Rashed, an activist from Tel Aviv, was on Telegram, the main source of news and information spreading across social media
Maria Rashed, a longtime resident of Tel Aviv who recently moved to London, had flown home to Nazareth for her sister’s engagement party the night before the October 7 attacks. “It was overwhelming to wake up facing war,” she tells WIRED. A Palestinian who grew up in a Christian family, Rashed is now an independent journalist. She was on mainstream platforms the morning of October 7. She didn’t have an official word on how Hamas fighters had entered Israel. “The only way for me to do that was to go on Telegram, enter the channel related to Hamas’ press team,” she says. You could see the videos of the attack that were not edited.
During the course of the day, Telegram, which has 800 million users worldwide, became the main source of videos and information spreading to other social media platforms, including X, Instagram, and TikTok, where content was being reposted with little to no verification.