Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The Global Center to Combat Extremism Ideology (Etidal) and the Telegram platform removed 18.6 million pieces of extremist content and closed 660 channels affiliated with terrorist organizations in the second quarter of 2024.

The center aims to refute the discourse of exclusion and undermine the digital activities of extremist groups through its innovative technologies.

In a statement, the center explained that joint teams continue their efforts to monitor and confront the propaganda activity of extremist content from three terrorist organizations (ISIS, Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham, and Al-Qaeda). The joint teams removed 14.8 million pieces of extremist content and closed 305 channels affiliated with the terrorist organization.

Additionally, they removed 3.5 million pieces of extremist content and closed 281 extremist channels affiliated with Tahrir al-Sham organization. They also removed 231,354 pieces of extremist content and closed 74 channels used by the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda to broadcast its extremist messages.

The center noted a peak in extremist propaganda activity on Monday, corresponding to Dhu al-Hijjah, at the beginning of the Hajj season, when it removed more than 2 million pieces of extremist content.

An increase in the propaganda activity of the three terrorist organizations during the second quarter of 2024 was observed, with a rate of 12.82% compared to the first quarter of 2024. This is a traditional activity of terrorist organizations that is repeated annually during the Hajj season.

It is noteworthy that the joint efforts between Etidal and the Telegram platform, from February 2022 until June 2024, resulted in the removal of 93.9 million pieces of extremist content and the closure of 14,193 extremist channels.

The extremist propaganda content that was removed varied between media files of various forms, including PDF formats, video clips, and audio recordings.