Telegram Faces a Fine of Up to $38 million: the Austrian Regulator has Taken the Matter to Court
The Australian online safety regulator has taken legal action against the Telegram messenger, accusing the platform of failing to remove extremist materials, including videos of mass killings in Buffalo and Christchurch, as well as execution recordings published by the Islamic State group. This was reported by AP.
Reason for the lawsuit
The Australian online safety watchdog filed a civil lawsuit with the Federal Court of Australia, claiming that Telegram did not ensure the timely detection and removal of anti-terrorism content.
This concerns, in particular, video recordings of mass killings committed by white supremacist ideology supporters in Buffalo, USA, and Christchurch, New Zealand, as well as videos of beheadings carried out by Islamic State militants.
If found in violation, the company could face a fine of up to 54.6 million Australian dollars (38 million US dollars).
What the regulator said
Electronic Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant noted that the case will test the 2021 Australian law that requires technology platforms to prevent the spread of illegal and terrorist materials.
According to her, the lawsuit concerns content related to some of the most notorious acts of extremist violence in recent years.
"We allege that this content remained accessible on the service long after Telegram was notified," Inman Grant said.
She also emphasized that group chats with up to 200 participants and channels with unlimited audiences pose a particular problem through which such content can spread.
Materials involved in the case
The lawsuit mentions materials related to the 2022 Buffalo attack, where a white supremacist streamed part of the shooting in a supermarket via Twitch, killing 10 Black people.
It also concerns the 2019 Christchurch terror attack, where the attacker livestreamed the shooting of worshippers in two mosques via Facebook. Fifty-one people died then.
According to the Australian regulator, after these events, Telegram channels appeared where users shared videos of attacks, manifestos, and other materials related to mass killings.
Telegram’s position
Telegram denied the accusations.
"We reject these allegations and will contest them in court," the company said in a written statement.
The messenger also emphasized that the platform conducts extensive work to counter terrorist content. The company refers to its own statistics, according to which over 150,000 terrorism-related communities were blocked this year.
Telegram stated that it systematically removes such channels and applies a policy to combat terrorist activity on the platform.
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