Telegram use in the UK surged following a mass stabbing that killed three young girls as far-right extremist groups reportedly used the secure messaging app to coordinate riots.According to The Financial Times, citing data from Similarweb, active users on the platform rose to 3.1 million on July 29, the day of the stabbing, up from an average of 2.7 million since the beginning of 2024. That jumped to 3.7 million a day later, when violence at a mosque in Southport led to more than 50 police officers being injured, before leveling by the weekend.According to counterterrorism group Tech Against Terrorism, “all tech platforms have been exploited,” since the Southport attacks, “but X and Telegram have been particularly vulnerable to disinformation and coordination of violence.The group “identified multiple extremist Southport-related Telegram channels emerging and being subsequently blocked or removed” on Wednesday morning. “Content in these channels included lists of immigration and refugee advice centers and charities, racist memes, and in some instances, terrorist content, for example, multiple posts sharing footage of the 2019 Christchurch attack livestream.”Tech Against Terrorism called on Telegram and UK “to be persistent” in disrupting this content. “The longer these channels persist on the platform, the higher the likelihood of users engaging in extremist Southport-related content and contributing to the potential radicalization of others in these spaces. Without a sustained removal effort of Telegram channels, copycat channels will emerge.”
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In an open letter this week, UK telecom regulator Ofcom urged social media and video platforms to be on guard for content being used to “stir up hatred, provoke violence and commit other offenses.” X has reportedly resisted calls to remove content.
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