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As social platforms like X<\/a> (formerly Twitter), Meta<\/a> and TikTok<\/a> face off with regulators and the theater of public opinion for how they are handling incendiary and graphic content, disinformation, writing and other media related to Hamas and Israel, Pavel Durov, the CEO of Telegram, has controversially come out to defend<\/a> how his messaging app is not<\/em> taking down some of the more sensitive war-related coverage that can be found on there, claiming that it can prove to be an important channel for information.<\/p>\n He also went on to distinguish it from social media, since users only see content to which they subscribe. (Yes, that does not take into account how content posted on Telegram gets shared.)<\/p>\n In his Telegram post today, Durov \u2014 borrowing some of the more \u201chigh-level<\/a>\u201d language that other social media executives have used \u2014 said that \u201cTelegram\u2019s moderators and AI tools remove millions of obviously harmful content from our public platform,\u201d but he also swiftly moved on to defending the app continuing to allow sensitive content under the category of \u201cwar-related coverage.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTackling war-related coverage is seldom obvious.\u201d (He does not define what the line is between \u201cobviously harmful\u201d and \u201cwar-related coverage\u201d.)<\/p>\n \u201cWhile it would be easy for us to destroy this source of information, doing so risks exacerbating an already dire situation,\u201d he continued, citing how, he said, Hamas used Telegram to warn civilians in Ashkelon to leave the area ahead of missile strikes. \u201cWould shutting down their channel help save lives \u2014 or would it endanger more lives?\u201d he asked in his post today.<\/p>\n Durov\u2019s comments come at a time when Telegram has most certainly been in the middle of how information has been getting out to the rest of the world, but that has not been limited to Telegram channels. In the initial hours and days of the deadly terrorist attacks, Hamas and people affiliated with it posted a number of graphic and very unedited videos of their acts on Telegram, and the app quickly became a much-cited reference point by mainstream media and many individuals posting and sharing news on other social channels, sometimes linking directly to Telegram posts, or capturing and resharing the content within them. Telegrams role in that information dissemination has itself come under attack<\/a>.<\/p>\n A cynical take might be that Telegram is profiting from the situation, by picking up more traffic from it. Durov noted, two days after the attack, that \u201chundreds of thousands\u201d of new users were signing up for the app from Israel and the Palestinian Territories, noting that Telegram was adding support for Hebrew in its UI.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone affected should have reliable access to news and private communication in these dire times,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n Durov\u2019s words and actions should not come as too much of a surprise: they are in line with the company\u2019s previous approach to sensitive content.<\/p>\n Part of Durov\u2019s defence of Telegram has always been to make a distinction between it and social media apps.<\/p>\n \u201cUnlike other apps that algorithmically promote shocking content to unsuspecting people, on Telegram, users receive only the content to which they specifically subscribed,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAs such, it\u2019s unlikely that Telegram channels can be used to significantly amplify propaganda. Instead, they serve as a unique source of first-hand information for researchers, journalists, and fact-checkers.\u201d<\/p>\n The app has previously taken a light touch when it comes to how its app is used by violent individuals or groups , courting a lot of controversy in the process. It has become, for example, a go-to place for communication around the war in Ukraine, but it\u2019s also become a hotbed for misinformation<\/a>, as this piece in Verge details. Resistance groups in Myanmar may be using it, but so are militants<\/a> supporting the current regime, who are using it to target individuals, as this investigation by CNN showed. And its controversial place as a go-to platform for recognized terrorist groups was well-known<\/a>. (Hamas is recognized by many countries, including the US, UK and Israel, as a terrorist organization.)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n