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A secretive messaging app is being used to spread misinformation about local Iranian activists and threats against Australians fighting for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
Australian-based Russians and Iranians say Telegram, whose CEO Pavel Durov faces for “allowing criminal activity” on the messaging app, plays an important role in their communities for job hunting, housing, and keeping updated on news and current affairs.
But they also say some bad actors are creating channels to sow division and expose the personal details of those they disagree with.
Meanwhile, Australian authorities are urging tech companies behind messaging apps like Telegram that use encryption technology to co-operate when called on, saying the technology is hampering their investigations in many cases.
‘Direct threats to members of society’
Adelaide-based Slava Grigoriev has lived in Australia for 30 years after coming from Russia.
He said members of the Russian-speaking community in Australia use Telegram extensively, including for local and international news and current affairs.
“We have a number of channels here, some by known personalities or groups of people, and they have taken a rather active position in covering current events from a pro-Russian, point of view,” he said.
SBS News has seen some of these Russian-language Telegram channels moderated by authors based in Australia. Some moderators are anonymous and some use their real names. The channels range from having 4,500 to 85,000 followers.
“Recently, the language of those channels has become much stronger,” Grigoriev said.
“It’s not just information that we can agree or disagree with. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of our views and a matter of taste.
“But when it comes to direct threats to specific members of our society, I believe that is unacceptable.”
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov faces charges in France for “allowing criminal activity” on the messaging app. Source: Getty / Manuel Blondeau/Corbis
SBS News can confirm some of the posts on those channels share personal details, including photos, of Australia-based Ukrainians and Russians involved in the anti-war and anti-Vladimir Putin movement.
In the posts, the authors suggest that these individuals “should pay the price for being traitors”.
The channels also publish names and photos of Australians fighting in Ukraine against Russia.
SBS News has seen a post dated 13 August 2024, in which the anonymous author wrote to an audience of almost 4,500 people calling for physical violence against the families of the Australian fighters.
In a post dated 28 August 2024, the same author mocks the mother of an Australian man killed in Ukraine for calling for the closure of the Russian embassy in Canberra and calls for violence against her.
In the post, the author re-shares photos of the dead man, including images of his body.
In a post dated 27 August 2024, the author stated that Australia is an ideal place for a “response from Russia”, as “it is not a NATO member state and does not have nuclear weapons”.
“Who needs these descendants of port whores and prisoners?,” the post read.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has a “do not travel” advisory in place for Ukraine. Australia’s embassy in the capital Kyiv is closed, meaning the department’s ability to offer consular assistance is “severely limited”.
It is unknown how many Australians have joined Ukraine’s International Foreign Legion but the ABC reported in July that seven had died fighting for the country since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukrainian soldiers load shells into a weapon on a vehicle that has been adapted to fire fire helicopter shells. Source: Getty, Anadolu / Diego Herrera Carcedo
‘Annoying and disappointing disinformation’
The Iranian community in Australia uses Telegram heavily, with groups dedicated to job searching, housing, universities, and travel.
“Telegram plays a key role in our community. Most of my communications happen through this platform,” Mohammad Hashemi, an Iranian-Australian community activist, told SBS Persian.
In September 2022, sparked a national and worldwide movement: .
Hashemi is now an admin of two community Telegram groups dedicated to events and protests related to the movement and general discussions about human rights.
Hashemi said the groups grew quickly, with one of them attracting over 3,000 members in a few days. Many of the accounts in the group were not known to the community, and they quickly started spreading misinformation and creating tension.
“There were a hundred different accounts. I believe some of them were fake,” he said.
“Some were not based in Australia, and some were related to the Iranian government.”
Some rumours spread in the groups were about Hashemi in particular, accusing him of being paid by political parties for organising the protests against the Iranian regime in Australia.
“It was not easy to hear these rumours. We were just trying to help our people,” he said.
“Seeing this disinformation was annoying and disappointing.”
Hashemi said that he did not report this to the Australian authorities and suspicious accounts were still sharing disinformation.
He believes there should be better outreach to multicultural communities regarding online safety.
“There is no information on where we can reach and ask for help about these incidents on Telegram,” he said. “They [the authorities] need to make it clearer that people can rely on them.”
Large volume of complaints
A spokesperson for Australia’s eSafety Commissioner said the online safety regulator had received a volume of complaints linking Telegram to harmful online content.
The agency said the app was inconsistent in removing such content.
The spokesperson said the agency does not monitor the internet, but “can act on complaints from Australians and direct online service provider to remove illegal or seriously harmful material”.
“eSafety has powers to remove seriously harmful or abusive content directly targeting an Australian adult or child, when it is reported,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“In cases where there is serious intent to harm, menace or harass, these powers may include personal information, such as names and addresses published without consent, a practice known as ‘doxing’.”
Anti-extremism group the Counter Extremism Project made a submission to the federal government’s right-wing extremism inquiry in April. It said since 2019 Telegram had become a key platform for the “international violent extreme right”, including , to organise themselves.
“Promotion of and other narratives, which are typically antisemitic, anti-Muslim, anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigrant, and anti-government, as well as news and tactics are discussed and shared across borders,” its submission read.
In March, the eSafety Commissioner to several companies, including Telegram, requiring them to report on the steps they are taking to protect Australians from terrorist and violent extremist material and activity.
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess says his agency wants more cooperation from platforms such as Telegram when it is carrying out investigations. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
Telegram was founded in 2013 by Russian brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov.
It was designed as a secure communication platform, allowing for exchanging end-to-end encrypted messages, and later rolling out public groups and channels.
Because messages on the platform are encrypted, Telegram has attracted malicious actors including extremists, radical groups and conspiracists, according to Dr Sofya Glazunova, a media industries and communications lecturer at the University of Melbourne.
Glazunova said Telegram lacks transparency regarding which countries or languages use it the most, but it is known to be popular in Russia and Iran.
“Telegram is one of the last strongholds and platforms for communication in Russia,” she said. “Several platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, are blocked [there], and YouTube is throttled.”
Pavel Durov left Russia in 2014 after losing control of his other company, VKontakte, or VK — a social media platform similar to Facebook — for refusing to hand over the data of Ukrainian protesters to Russian security agencies.
The Russian government started blocking access to Telegram in 2018, but it had little real effect on users. It was officially unblocked in 2020. Telegram is now headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Australia’s Assistance and Access Act became law in 2018, allowing law enforcement and security agencies to seek co-operation from tech companies in their investigations.
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess says his agency wants more cooperation from platforms such as Telegram.
ASIO has said that encrypted communications damage intelligence coverage in 90 per cent of its priority counter-terrorism investigations.
“We need cooperation from industry to have lawful access which is targeted and proportionate,” Burgess said in an interview with the Risky Business podcast last week.
“The laws in this country are sufficient. I’m not asking for a change of law. I’m asking for those message providers, the big tech companies, to cooperate with us to find a way to do it securely, not break the internet.”
Telegram did not respond to a request for comment.