"Posts circulating on Telegram, the online ecosystem of choice among militant neo-Nazis, urge followers to locate the addresses of politicians in Congress and assassinate them."
Vice is already trying to label Telegram as a haven for Neo-Nazis, which it probably isn't. Or isn't any more than Signal, FB or anything else for that matter.
The issue is the government will use this as a means to crackdown on protests, private messaging apps and others things we've enjoyed for decades.
>Vice is already trying to label Telegram as a haven for Neo-Nazis, which it probably isn't.
If you mean they actively encourage or court neo-Nazis, no. But a place where they congregate and communicate, then it certainly is, because they've been blocked from most other platforms.
It's not a coincidence that places with little to no moderation like parler, voat, 4chan, 8chan, various subreddits before reddit decided to crack down, etc. are flooded with these people. It happens over and over again and is entirely predictable.
Your point about the potential for government restriction is valid, but the reality is that if these platforms are predictably flooded with bigotry and violence and don't have a plan for dealing with it, it's very likely that eventually a plan will be imposed on them. It's a complicated issue, one that unfortunately Hacker News handles discussion of very poorly.
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[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 27.0 ms ] threadhttps://www.vice.com/en/article/88adm4/neo-nazis-ask-militar...
I wouldn't be surprised to see Telegram start cleaning house as well when the eye of Sauron rightfully turns on them.
Vice is already trying to label Telegram as a haven for Neo-Nazis, which it probably isn't. Or isn't any more than Signal, FB or anything else for that matter.
The issue is the government will use this as a means to crackdown on protests, private messaging apps and others things we've enjoyed for decades.
If you mean they actively encourage or court neo-Nazis, no. But a place where they congregate and communicate, then it certainly is, because they've been blocked from most other platforms.
It's not a coincidence that places with little to no moderation like parler, voat, 4chan, 8chan, various subreddits before reddit decided to crack down, etc. are flooded with these people. It happens over and over again and is entirely predictable.
Your point about the potential for government restriction is valid, but the reality is that if these platforms are predictably flooded with bigotry and violence and don't have a plan for dealing with it, it's very likely that eventually a plan will be imposed on them. It's a complicated issue, one that unfortunately Hacker News handles discussion of very poorly.
And is Telegram more like a newspaper, a classified ad section, a phone system, a bathroom wall, or something else entirely?