Australia takes Telegram to court over alleged failure to remove 'pro-terror' material

Australia takes Telegram to court over alleged failure to remove 'pro-terror' materialImage caption, Julie Inman Grant has launched legal action against social media platform TelegramByHelen LivingstoneSydneyPublished13 minutes agoAustralia is taking Telegram to court over its alleged failure to remove "pro-terror" material, including video of the Christchurch shootings, the country's eSafety commissioner has said.Julie Inman-Grant, who last year led Australia's world-first ban on social media for under-16s, said the platform faced a fine of up to to A$54.6m (£28m, US$38m) for failing to comply with its safety obligations under the Online Safety Act.The platform had left content "linked to some of the most notorious acts of known extremist violence in recent history" online long after it had been put on notice, she alleged."This should concern all of us," she said, adding "no platform is above the law".The announcement comes a day after Russia charged Telegram's founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorism, based on allegations that the messenger app had been used for recruitment by Ukrainian secret services.Durov was also arrested and placed under formal investigation in France in 2024 for his alleged failure to properly moderate the app to reduce criminality. He was allowed to go home months later, while the investigation continues.Inman-Grant said her agency had begun inquiring what Telegram was doing to combat terrorist and extremist material in March 2024, and had endured "five very difficult months of unresponsiveness".Though the platform later started engaging, she said it had retained a "permissive environment" for hosting extremist content that was "very easy to find"."This only serves to desensitise, to normalise and to sometimes radicalise" users, she said. She also alleged that the platform was "sometimes used to plan attacks".The BBC was...