Hamas' Explosive Rise: The Unstoppable Surge in Social Media Following Despite America's Efforts

Hamas has been banned on several social media platforms, yet its popularity has grown significantly on the messaging app Telegram after the October 7 terror attack on Israel. Following for one al-Qassam Brigades account, Hamas' military branch, has tripled, and the number of views on their videos and posts has increased ten-fold.

Hamas is recognized as a foreign terrorist organization in the United States, and recent internet regulations in the European Union entail severe penalties for major social media platforms that host terrorist content.

Both Meta and Google have banned Hamas accounts, but Telegram, a company established by a Russian entrepreneur and currently headquartered in Dubai, has chosen to permit the group to utilize its service.

X, previously known as Twitter, has implemented a prohibition on Hamas and has taken down numerous "Hamas-affiliated accounts." In contrast, the European Union recently declared its initiation of an investigation into the company regarding disinformation and illegal content regarding the conflict on its platform.

Hamas growing audience

At the time of the attack, the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, had approximately 200,000 followers on their Telegram channel. However, according to the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, the number of followers on the channel has more than tripled since then.

Prior to the attack, the channel's posts received an average of around 25,000 views. Now, the views have increased to over 300,000, representing a more than ten-fold increase in visibility.

According to Memetica, a threat analysis company, a channel featuring video messages from a Hamas spokesperson saw a significant increase in followers. Before October 7th, the channel had approximately 166,000 followers, but it now boasts more than 414,000 followers. Brian Fishman, formerly part of Meta's anti-terrorism team and co-founder of trust and safety company Cinder, stated that Telegram has gained popularity among extremist groups worldwide and far-right groups in the United States due to its lenient content moderation rules.

The popularity of Telegram in the US surged following the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th, as prominent purveyors of election conspiracy theories transitioned to the platform after being banned from Facebook and Twitter. According to its founder, Telegram has a global user base of around 800 million individuals.

Although Fishman expressed concern over the substantial increase in the number of individuals subscribing to Hamas Telegram accounts, he clarified that this does not imply that all followers are supporters. He noted that many journalists, researchers, and other individuals are likely monitoring these accounts.

Telegram has the potential to serve as a powerful propaganda instrument. The fact that it allows a group to reach a broader audience is particularly concerning. Furthermore, there are individuals who amplify the group's message by sharing its content on various other platforms, acting as force multipliers. This strategy resembles the one employed by ISIS, which serves as a model for such practices. Pavel Durov, a Russian-born entrepreneur, established Telegram. In 2014, Durov departed from Russia due to his refusal to provide data on pro-Ukrainian protesters, which stemmed from another tech company he had founded, to the Russian government.

"In a recent public post on Telegram, Durov stated that Hamas had utilized the platform to alert civilians in Ashkelon about the impending missile strikes. He justified his decision to permit Hamas's usage of Telegram by posing the question: would shutting down their channel effectively save lives or potentially put more lives at risk? Durov emphasized that Telegram stands apart from other platforms as it abstains from utilizing algorithms to promote content. Moreover, he argued that Hamas Telegram channels serve as an invaluable source of primary information for researchers, journalists, and fact-checkers."

Could Telegram be held accountable?

For years, critics of social media have tried to hold platforms accountable by suing them for the content they host, including material produced by terror groups.

However, in the United States, lawsuits related to content moderation in the context of the Israel-Hamas war are unlikely to be successful, as US courts have generally been skeptical of such litigation. According to John Bergmayer, a platform liability specialist at Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group in the US, internet platforms have the legal freedom to moderate content on their platforms. This right is protected by the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which is a controversial federal law criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for absolving tech companies of responsibility, albeit for different reasons.

Section 230 would grant platforms like Telegram the advantage of asserting that their hosting or removal of terrorism content is beyond questioning in US courts. Consequently, it could pose challenges for plaintiffs seeking legal action to compel Telegram to eliminate Hamas content.

In the European Union, Telegram could encounter heightened scrutiny due to existing regulations mandating platforms to promptly remove terrorism content within an hour of being notified by an EU authority. Failure to comply with this requirement could result in fines amounting to 4% of the platform's annual revenue.

Very large platforms have been warned by the European Union that they may face significant financial penalties if they fail to handle illegal content or mis- and disinformation in compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA came into effect in August for companies like Meta, X, and TikTok. It remains unclear whether the European Commission has issued similar warnings to Telegram or requested information from the platform. The European commissioner, Thierry Breton, who issued the warnings to tech companies last week, has not yet provided a response regarding the EU's perspective on Telegram. It is worth noting that Telegram is not listed as one of the very large platforms that are required to adhere to the heightened DSA obligations set by the EU.