Telegram Shuts Down Far-Right Channels After French Government Request

Following the revelations of Tajmaât, a "collaborative platform for the Maghreb diaspora" which explains "to relay news concerning Maghrebis, to help when some members are in difficulty, to communicate on the problems we encounter and to conduct investigations when our "monitoring" group on social networks detects suspicious profiles that can reach or aim to attack the diaspora", Gérald Darmanin asked Telegram to close the discussion loops used by "FrDeter", a far-right group composed of individuals belonging to identitarian movements. According to the collaborative platform, neo-Nazis from the National Police, municipal police officers, BAC agents, CR are part of FrDeter.

In a statement to France Inter, police sources confirmed that hundreds of FrDeter activist accounts are exchanging in several groups on the encrypted messaging app, with subcategories for each department. According to a senior official from the Ministry of the Interior, these Telegram loops have been infiltrated by French intelligence services since the end of 2022 who have "observed a shift in the discussions, with more violent messages, calling for action to be taken". The targets of these threats of lynching are among others the Muslim community, lawyers, elected officials, journalists.

Telegram is already working on the closure of certain discussion loops. Legal proceedings could soon be initiated.