RIYADH: The Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, and messaging platform Telegram, have together removed around 1.9 million online items of extremist content since partnering on an initiative earlier this year.
And of the total, an estimated 1.2 million pieces of material and links were taken down between June 8 and July 12.
The center, known as Etidal, has been collaborating with Telegram on preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism by reviewing online content posted in Arabic. Both organizations have agreed to expand their coordination to detect and remove Arabic material glorifying terrorism.
Among items referred were media files — PDFs, videos, and audio — uploaded by groups on Telegram and public Telegram channels hosting the material.
The cooperation agreement aims to protect the platform’s users from extremist content, ideological influences, and attempts to exploit the platform in trading the content.
On Feb. 21, Etidal and Telegram announced a deal to step up their joint cooperation on tackling the issue.
