{"id":4456,"date":"2021-01-01T09:24:46","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T09:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=145333"},"modified":"2021-01-01T09:24:46","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T09:24:46","slug":"the-telegram-app-gives-voice-to-the-oppressed-in-belarus-and-russia-but-hate-groups-are-using-it-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/01\/the-telegram-app-gives-voice-to-the-oppressed-in-belarus-and-russia-but-hate-groups-are-using-it-too\/","title":{"rendered":"The Telegram App Gives Voice To The Oppressed In Belarus And Russia. But Hate Groups Are Using It Too."},"content":{"rendered":"
In a year marked by tightened restrictions and unrest, Telegram sent a clear message to authoritarian governments who tried to keep it quiet in 2020. But as the app, which has earned a reputation as a free-speech platform, looks to spread the word in Iran and China, its popularity among messengers of violence and hate remains a concern.<\/p>\n
Telegram has emerged as an essential tool for opposition movements in places like Belarus and Iran and won a huge victory when the Russian authorities gave up on their effort to ban the app after two fruitless years during which senior officials continued to use it themselves.<\/p>\n
But protesters and open media are not the only ones who find sanctuary in a tool like Telegram. Terrorists, hate groups, and purveyors of gore also see the benefits of encrypted group chats that can reach large audiences without censorship.<\/p>\n
Nowhere was the hidden hand of Telegram more apparent in 2020 than in Belarus, where activists and opposition politicians relied on the platform to counter the authorities\u2019 attempts to control the narrative in a crucial election year.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the August 9 vote pitting authoritarian incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka against a thinned pool of opposition candidates, the Belarusian authorities did their best to intimidate administrators of rogue Telegram channels.<\/p>\n
When three Telegram-based opposition bloggers were arrested in June, the rights watchdog Amnesty International decried the pressure against alternative sources of information.<\/p>\n
\n\nA quick perusal of some of the more sordid open channels on Telegram reveals that it is a place for violence, criminal activity, and abusers, regardless of what Europol says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
“The Belarusian authorities are carrying out a full-scale purge of dissenting voices, using repressive laws to stifle criticism ahead of the elections,” said Aisha Jung, Amnesty International\u2019s senior campaigner on Belarus.<\/p>\n
After Lukashenka claimed he had won a sixth straight term, triggering mass protests that continue to bring people onto the streets to contest the outcome, despite a violent police crackdown, it was the authorities who were crying foul.<\/p>\n
“You see: a square was drawn in a well-known channel on Sunday — go there. They went. They stood in this square,” Lukashenka said<\/a> after attempts to block the websites of independent outlets drove the opposition-minded to Telegram. “They drew another one — go there, and then go to the Palace of Independence. This is how they manage.”<\/p>\n
In November, the state Investigative Committee was accusing the creators of the Poland-based Nexta channel on Telegram of organizing what it called “mass riots.” By the end of the month, the creators of the opposition-friendly news source had been added to the State Security Committee\u2019s list of “persons involved in terrorist activities.”<\/p>\n