‘Will it save lives or jeopardize them?’ Pavel Durov explains why he won’t ban Hamas from Telegram

Pavel Durov, the tech executive bind the Telegram messenger, has published a statement on why the platform’s management will not shut down the channel run by Hamas militants. In a statement posted on his own Telegram channel, Durov wrote:

Every single day, Telegram moderators and AI tools remove millions of evidently harmful publications from our platform. But the problem of war coverage rarely comes with an obvious solution. Earlier this week, Hamas used Telegram before rocket attacks on Ashkelon to warn civilians that they must leave the area. Will shutting down this channel help save lives or jeopardize them?

The executive noted that complex political situations “require careful thought, taking into account the differences between social platforms.” The difference, in his own words, is largely in the way Telegram delivers content to subscribers:

Unlike other apps that algorithmically promote shocking content to unsuspecting people, Telegram users only get the content they subscribed to. This makes Telegram channels unlikely to significantly amplify propaganda.

Durov pointed out that Telegram channels serve as a unique source of first-hand information for researchers, journalists, and fact-checkers. “While it would be easy for us to destroy this source of information, we risk exacerbating an already difficult situation by doing that,” he concluded.