Lawsuit Wants to Force Apple to Remove Telegram From App Store

Telegram messenger on iPhone

A nonpartisan group called Coalition for a Safer Web filed a lawsuit against Apple. Following the removal of Parler from the App Store, the group wants Apple to remove Telegram as well. The coalition’s goal is to advocate for technologies and policies that remove extremist content from social media (via The Washington Post).

Telegram

Apple removed Parler over its lax moderation policies with members calling for violence and other threats. Telegram has also been accused of hosting “white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other hateful content”. Marc Ginsberg, the coalition’s president, calls it a “superspreader”.

Since Telegram’s development team is based in Dubai (originally from Russia), the coalition is instead suing Apple as the App Store gatekeeper.

Ginsberg, who is Jewish, asserts in the suit that Telegram’s anti-Semitic content puts him in peril and that his ownership of an iPhone gives him standing to sue Apple in federal court to require that the company enforce its terms of service barring hate speech and incitement to violence on apps carried by the App Store.

The suit, filed in U. S. District Court for Northern California, alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress and violation of the California business code, and seeks unspecified compensatory damages and an injunction requiring Apple to remove Telegram from its app store.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction against Apple for Telegram’s removal as well as unspecified compensatory damages.

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