SINGAPORE – Access to several Telegram channels with content related to Hamas is no longer available to users of Apple and Android mobile devices.
The Jerusalem Post first reported on Tuesday that the official channels of Hamas and its armed wing – the Al-Qassam Brigades - were blocked on Android devices which had the app downloaded from the Google Play Store.
The Israeli news outlet said the Telegram channels had been blocked because of Google’s app store guidelines, which include banning violent content, as well as “apps with content related to terrorism, such as content that promotes terrorist acts, incites violence, or celebrates terrorist attacks”.
It also does not allow “apps with content related to planning, preparing, or glorifying violence against civilians”.
Meanwhile, The Straits Times found on Thursday that the channels had also been made inaccessible on Apple devices.
When attempting to view the Al-Qassam Brigades’ Telegram channel on an iPhone, it showed this message: “Unfortunately, this channel couldn’t be displayed on your device.”
In its guidelines, California-based Apple states that apps in its App Store should not contain “objectionable content”, including realistic portrayals of people being killed, or content that encourages violence.
ST has contacted Google and Apple for more information.
Although the channels have been blocked on mobile devices running the two most popular mobile operating systems – 70.5 per cent of people use Android globally, with Apple coming in second at 28.8 per cent according to Statista – they are still accessible on desktop versions of Telegram.
The channel run by the Al-Qassam Brigades had more than 720,000 subscribers as at Thursday afternoon, with more than 14,000 media files shared. All the posts are in Arabic.
They include updates on Hamas’ latest actions, including locations where it had most recently bombed, as well as photos and videos of Hamas militants in action.
In one video, they can be seen attaching rockets to drones, while another shows them riding on motorised paragliders, which were used during its attack on Israel on Oct 7.
During the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah on Oct 7, Hamas launched its biggest incursion into Israel in decades, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages. ST could not verify if the paraglider scenes in the Telegram channel were part of this attack.
In response to the attacks, Israel mounted a series of retaliatory strikes, killing more than 6,500 people in Gaza so far.
Israel’s leaders have also said that it is preparing for a ground invasion of the territory, which is about half the size of Singapore and home to about 2.3 million people.
