Last week, several pro-Palestinian Telegram channels were blocked in European countries, including the “Palestine Archive ??” channel with more than 15,000 followers and the “Resistance News Network” (RNN) with more than 166,000 subscribers. The exact justification of the ban are not known. While Telegram did not respond to a journalistic request, the RNN said that there was no reason for the closure. Anyone who tries to open up the channel in the affected countries now will receive the notification that they cannot be not displayed because they “violate local laws”. RNN and the online outlet The Cradle have spoken of an EU-wide ban.

While the legal basis for the blocking remains unclear, the political reasons are obvious. RNN itself explained to Peoples Dispatch: “We believe RNN was banned because we shed light on the reality of resistance on the ground, which upends the mainstream zionist narrative.“

  • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    2 months ago

    Kind of hilarious how people in the west would always claims that the differentiating factor between them and countries like China was freedom of expression. Turns out what was really happening was that majority of people in the west were just swallowing their state propaganda uncritically, and there was no need for heavy handed censorship. Now that the state is losing control of the narrative heavy handed measures are promptly introduced.

    As always, the west is no different from its adversaries, but people in the west are gullible enough to think they’re special.

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    The article is a month old but many users are reporting on new bans since yesterday.

      • foremanguy@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        Telegram is not a social for counter the censorship and be private, it’s not good at all to use Telegram for this kind of messaging + with the arrest of Durov, it will even more difficult to counter govs when using Telegram

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              2 months ago

              It’s incredible that it needs to be explained that the issue is with the censorship regardless of what particular service is being censored or what you personally happen to think of it.

              • foremanguy@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                2 months ago

                To combat censorship, first go out a anti-censorship platform and then try to solve the problem

                • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  8
                  ·
                  2 months ago

                  What part of the government is making information illegal are you struggling comprehend? If there was some magical anti-censorship platform that was usable by regular people then it would just be banned, and then people using it would be arrested. This is not a technology problem.

                • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  2 months ago

                  This sounds like a famous engineer’s disease adage: The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. Not every social problem can or should be solved by technology.

        • GarbageShootAlt2@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          Telegram is awful, but that’s mainly because it is readily bent towards the interests of malicious state actors like we see here. This headline is produced by two things being bad, not just one.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      arrow-down
      10
      ·
      2 months ago

      Censorship and privacy are closely linked but you are right they are different subjects. Telegram blocking access to certain channels based on region overlaps into privacy territory for me but people are free to down vote the post if they disagree.

      • Maeve
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        Most people in the security industries that I’ve ever known are keenly interested in privacy, for good reason. There is a reason certain protesting elements *cover their faces and it’s not usually for nefarious reasons.

        *Autocorrect ftl

  • unknowing8343@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    2 months ago

    Playing a bit of devil’s advocate here: any of you used these channels? Could it be that they were just spreading misinformation like every country does at war? Any example of existing zionist Telegram channels?