RIYADH, April 2 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-based Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology (Etidal) and messaging platform Telegram removed more than 16 million pieces of extremist online content and shut down 445 channels belonging to three terror groups in the first quarter of 2024.
According to the Saudi Press Agency reports, the groups are ISIS, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, and Al-Qaeda.
More than 11.6 million pieces of ISIS content were deleted, and 187 channels were closed, which is the highest among the three groups.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham had over 3.2 million pieces removed and 186 channels closed, while Al-Qaeda lost more than 1.6 million pieces removed and 72 channels closed.
Since their collaboration started in February 2022, Etidal and Telegram have removed more than 75 million items of extremist online content and closed 13,533 channels used to spread extremism.
Etidal was established in May 2017 and consists of various international organizations and state institutions as part of efforts to fight extremism. ■
