Australia takes Telegram to court after failing to remove ‘terrorist’ material.

Australia is taking Telegram to court for failing to remove “terrorist” material, including a video of the Christchurch shootings, the country’s safety commissioner has announced.

Julie Inman-Grant, who led the world’s first social media ban on under-16s in Australia last year, has faced fines of up to $54.6 million after the platform failed to meet its security obligations under the Online Safety Act.

The platform left content online “relating to some of the most notorious acts of extremist violence in recent history” long after the announcement, she said.

“This should concern all of us,” she said, adding, “No platform is above the law.”

The announcement comes a day later. Russia was accused Telegram founder Pavel Durov is accused of facilitating terrorism, based on accusations that the Messenger app was used by Ukraine’s secret services to recruit him.

Durov He was also arrested And in 2024, a formal investigation was launched in France over alleged mishandling of the app to reduce crime. he was. He was allowed to go home Months later, when the investigation continues.

Inman Grant said her agency began questioning Telegram in March 2024 about what it was doing to fight terrorism and extremism and had endured “five very difficult months of no response.”

Although the platform started participating later, she said it still maintains a “permissive environment” to host extremist content that is “very easy to find.”

“This only serves to desensitize, normalize and sometimes radicalize,” she said. In addition, the platform is “sometimes used to plan attacks,” she said.

A Telegram spokesperson said the platform’s “extensive” counterterrorism efforts are “well-documented,” adding, “We will deny these allegations and challenge them in court.”

The extremist content that is said to be available in Telegram It will include video of the 2019 Christchurch mosque and Buffalo shootings in New York in May 2022, as well as footage of terrorist killings, Inman-Grant reported.

With the “tragic effect” of December’s attack on a Jewish festival in Bondi on the minds of Australians, she said, “it is more important than ever that digital platforms fulfill their duty to protect the community”.

Inman Grant said Australia does not license platforms like Telegram, but said “we could apply to the Federal Court and ask for the service to be taken down”.

“We have never used these powers,” she said. “We will see how this all plays out and whether or not this type of action is warranted.”

The eSafety watchdog fined Telegram $1m in February 2021 for failing to respond in a timely manner to questions about how it tackles child abuse and extremism on the platform.