Photographer: Brent Lewin / Bloomberg
Photographer: Brent Lewin / Bloomberg
A former US ambassador wants Google Telegram to do what it did to Parler.
Marc Ginsberg sued the The unit of Alphabet Inc. on Monday asked a California court to demand that the Telegram Messenger app from Google Play Store as it enables violence, extremism and anti-Semitism.
Telegram has been used, especially in the aftermath of George Floyd’s assassination and the inauguration of Joe Biden as president, to threaten, encourage and coordinate racial violence, claims Ginsberg, who was Bill Clinton’s ambassador to Morocco. He pointed out that after the riot in the Capitol on Jan. 6, Google suspended Parler from his app store because some of his right-wing users expressed support for the siege and further violence.
“Google has not taken any action against Telegram comparable to the action it has taken against Parler to force Telegram to improve its content moderation policy,” Ginsberg’s lawsuit said. He filed a similar complaint against Apple Inc. on January 17, which also pulled Parler from its app store after the riot.
Google did not immediately respond to an email request for comment. Telegram also did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment. Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, said last week that the company’s moderators had deleted hundreds of posts in the aftermath of the Capitol riot and calls for violence would not be tolerated.
‘Talking refugees’
Amazon.com Inc. expressed its own concerns about violent content on Parler by pulling the plug from the platform’s web hosting service. The actions taken against Parler, as well as former President Donald Trump’s ban and others from Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. has sparked a wide debate about the control and responsibilities of the tech industry with regard to speech.
A channel on Telegram is dedicated to ‘Parler refugees’. Some Telegram users urged followers to drop plans for a second protest in Washington in support of Trump in favor of surprise nationwide attacks, the lawsuit said.
The indictment also accuses Telegram of serving as a platform for the sale of illegal and controlled substances, including LSD and cocaine.
Ginsberg, who is Jewish and grew up in Israel, says in the trial that he was the target of two assassination attempts because of his religious beliefs. His coalition for safer Web, also listed as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, says it is pushing social media platforms to end their tolerance for anti-Semitism and enable extremist groups.
Read more: Telegram CEO says app will start generating revenue next year
(Updates with similar lawsuit against Apple in fourth paragraph.)