Telegram, the messaging application that rose to prominence in the past week, reportedly shut down several calls of violence. Pavel Durov, the founder, addressed this in a public post on Monday. The calls were shut down as they went against the app’s terms and conditions. While the Chief Executive Officer said that the app promotes “peaceful debates.”
The news follows the political tensions rising ever since the 2020 Presidential Election and the resulting Capitol Riots earlier this month. In a post, Durov mentioned that while the platform supports “peaceful protest,” it denounces “calls for violence” by the public. He further added that many “Civil Movements” around the globe used Telegram to stand for human rights, without “inflicting harm.”
Telegram’s Success & Terms:
The app’s chat feature protects messages sent on the forum. Encryption’s value over the past couple of weeks has been highly debated across the United States. Trump’s follower’s rise with extreme rightist violence has been a major inspiration, triggering several to question the First Amendment. Though several have been pressurizing the CEO, the application has left out the consideration to make the conversations available to the law.
The threats of violence began earlier this month. The public post stated that Telegram’s team started getting several reports of the US-based activities. The team, in retaliation, acted promptly, taking down the channels that were promoting violence. In the past week, the app has gained a significant boost after WhatsApp published its now misleading privacy policy. It prompted a large number of people to flee and settle on Telegram.
The rise of violence can be traced to the banishment of the far-rightist messenger Parler. The forum was taken down from several free stores, and Amazon Services stopped hosting the website. Amazon has since dealt with several violent threats, as well as a lawsuit for “breach of contract.”
