Etidal and Telegram take down around 2 Million extremist material during Hajj

In a concerted effort during this year’s Hajj season, the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology (Etidal) and Telegram removed over 2 million pieces of extremist content. This initiative comes amidst a reported 12.82% rise in propaganda activities by ISIS, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and Al-Qaeda in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter, a surge commonly observed during Hajj.

Etidal and Telegram have been collaborating to prevent and counter terrorism and violent extremism by monitoring and eliminating online Arabic content that promotes such ideologies. Both organizations have committed to strengthening their coordination to more effectively detect and remove material glorifying terrorism. The removed content included various media files such as PDFs, audio recordings and videos which were disseminated by these groups on Telegram.

The partnership’s efforts led to the removal of over 18 million pieces of extremist content and the shutdown of 660 terrorist-affiliated channels in the second quarter of 2024. Specifically, the initiative targeted ISIS, resulting in the removal of 14 million pieces of content and the closure of 305 channels; Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), with 3.5 million pieces of content removed and 281 channels closed; and Al-Qaeda, with 231,354 pieces of content removed and 74 channels shut down.

The removed content included various media files such as PDFs, audio recordings and videos which were disseminated by these groups on Telegram. The joint efforts aim to safeguard Telegram users from exposure to extremist content and prevent the platform from being exploited for the distribution of such material.

Since the inception of their partnership in February 2022, Etidal and Telegram have removed nearly 94 million pieces of extremist content and shut down over 14,000 channels. Etidal, established in May 2017 by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and international leaders in Riyadh, is focused on monitoring and eradicating extremist content globally.