The organization "Coalition for a safer web" (CSW, according to its acronym in English), has filed a lawsuit against Apple in the court of the District of Northern California, in the United States, in which the elimination of Telegram is requested.
The document presented alleges that Apple has not removed the Telegram app from the App Store despite the fact that the instant messaging platform was used by various violent groups to communicate in the framework of the assaults on the Capitol on January 6.
The agency denounces that Apple has not taken any action in this regard despite the fact that Telegram was used as a communication channel by different anti-Semitic and racist groups and, however, in the case of Parler it did retaliate. The application, widely used by supporters of Donald Trump if it was blocked in the Apple Store.
Parler was also blocked from the Google Play Store and even Amazon removed it from its servers , forcing users to look for other alternatives to Parler to communicate. However, it must be borne in mind that Parler was withdrawn - according to what was communicated by Apple, Google and Amazon - because it did not have a moderation system for content published by users. In the case of Telegram, this would apply to channels -not to individual chats- but the company did withdraw dozens of them, using a moderation system, which is why it was not blocked.
In any case, the document presented by the CSW establishes that Pavel Durov's social network is also being used to promote violence in the days before the new president of the United States, Joe Biden, took office. For this reason, the members of the "Coalition for a Safer Web" are demanding a jury trial in which a court order is granted to remove Telegram from the App Store . In addition, they also request financial compensation for each of the plaintiffs.
Previous lawsuits against Telegram
It is not the first time that the CSW has sued Telegram. Last July he accused her of functioning as a communication channel for the Russian government, neo-Nazi groups and affiliated white nationalists.
Similarly, he denounced her for sowing information, as well as for fostering racial division both in the United States and in Europe. One of the top officials of the CSW, Marc Ginsberg, directly requested Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, the temporary removal of Telegram from the App Store for "inciting extremist violence." Their requests were not taken into account and that is why now the CSW is suing Apple for not removing the Telegram app.