Telegram is the latest messaging platform receiving an influx from the far-right. And these new users are going after Jewish people.
Telegram is a cloud-based messaging board that is known for privacy. But the far-right loves the app because it does not have the kind of community guidelines that prevent hateful content. Now, a screenshot posted to Twitter is exposing the app’s rampant anti-Semitism
The app uses end-to-end encryption, which only allows for the sender and receiver of a message to view the content. Users can pin posts on their board that is available for other Telegram users to see.
Twitter user @raf first noticed the anti-Semitism spreading on Telegram.
“Now that white nationalists are consolidating to Telegram, know that this is the app where a list of Jews to target (including me and my friends) is maintained and added to everyday by Nazis. It’s founder @durov refused to ban it,” they tweeted.
The account posted a screen recording of the hate they found. It starts with a screenshot of a channel that is described as a page for “the tireless and continuing work of The Noticer / European Man. It is a celebration of God’s chosen people. The shapeshifting, The subversion, the anti-white hatred, it’s all here folks.”
The video scrolls through dozens of screenshots of people who are mostly Black or Jewish.
The Telegram account, called “The Noticer,” is still online to chat and view pinned posts. It has over 12,000 followers. It’s not the only one.
Thousands of people are flocking to these Telegram channels devoted to spreading anti-Semitism and its raising concerns.
“This may actually be another mass-radicalization event. An entire social media platform’s userbase is migrating into a single Telegram Channel. The biggest problem is that Telegram is packed full of neo-Nazis, now dumping in redpill and antisemitic content * channels for others,” another Twitter user noticed.
The app does not censor any type of content, including hate speech, as it values privacy and expression above all. For that, it differs from other social media sites that can block this type of content. Telegram was unable to comment to the Daily Dot by time of publication.
The move to Telegram comes after Amazon, Apple, and Google pulled Parler from app stores and web hosting. Parler is a platform similar to Twitter, but for the far-right. Many people like ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone used Parler after being banned from Twitter.
But now that Parler’s gone, Telegram is likely the new home for online communication among the far-right.
