• Hamas' social media following has surged since its attacks on Israel began this month.
• On Telegram, followers of the militant group have tripled, and views are up 10x their usual rate.
• Meta has removed 7x more content that is sympathetic to Hamas, but the groups' accounts are banned.

In the small digital enclave they have left, the engagement on official Hamas social media accounts is booming, with followers skyrocketing and video views through the roof. On other platforms — even without an official Hamas presence — sympathetic posts for the militant group are surging.

Hamas-affiliated accounts are largely banned across social media sites, including Meta's Facebook and Instagram, as well as Elon Musk's X, but the group — designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union — has carved out a presence on the messaging platform, Telegram, where new followers are flocking.

Hamas' following on Telegram

The Telegram channel for Hamas' military wing has more than tripled its following in the days since the militant group began its terrorist attacks on Israel, CNN reported, citing analysis by the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab. Engagement on videos and other posts to the channel have similarly surged, receiving more than 10 times the usual number of views, per CNN. 

A representative for Telegram told Insider that the platform is evaluating how best to approach content moderation as misinformation about the conflict surges across social media. Pavel Durov, Telegram's founder, said in a post on October 13 that the platform's moderators, aided by AI tools, remove millions of posts that are "obviously harmful" each day but added that "tackling war-related coverage is seldom obvious."

"Earlier this week, Hamas used Telegram to warn civilians in Ashkelon to leave the area ahead of their missile strikes. Would shutting down their channel help save lives — or would it endanger more lives?" Durov added, "While it would be easy for us to destroy this source of information, doing so risks exacerbating an already dire situation."

Telegram's primary function is slightly different than other platforms like Instagram or X because Telegram requires users to seek out a specific channel to view its content instead of being shown suggestions promoted by an algorithm, Durov added, which he said makes the platform valuable for journalists and fact-checkers without significantly amplifying propaganda to unsuspecting audiences.

Off Telegram, pro-Hamas posts surge

Even on platforms where Hamas doesn't have official accounts, posts that encourage or sympathize with the militant group have risen sharply after Israel declared war on Hamas following Hamas' attacks on October 7. 

Meta shared in an October 13 statement that, in the three days following October 7, the social media giant removed or marked as disturbing more than 795,000 pieces of content in Hebrew and Arabic that violated its internal policies regarding dangerous organizations, violent content, hate speech, and harassment. In the same timeframe, it removed seven times as many daily posts in Hebrew and Arabic as usual that violated the company's dangerous organizations policy. 

A representative for Meta declined to answer questions from Insider about how many additional pro-Hamas posts have been removed on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in the days since or how those numbers compare to the rate of posts made by people sympathetic to Israel that also violate its internal policies on violent content, hate speech, and harassment.

At YouTube, a spokesperson told Insider moderators of the platform are working "around the clock" to monitor for graphic or Hamas-affiliated content, which are a violation of existing policies on the platform.

The video-hosting platform has removed "tens of thousands of harmful videos and terminated hundreds of channels," the YouTube spokesperson told Insider.

On X, formerly Twitter, CEO Linda Yaccarino said in an October 11 statement that the platform had "identified and removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts from the platform" since the war began and removed or labeled "tens of thousands of pieces of content" in the days immediately following the attacks by Hamas.

Though X has indicated its commitment to moderating content related to the conflict, misleading posts continued circulating widely on the platform, including video game footage, old videos, and Algerian football celebrations passed off as examples of the war between Israel and Hamas. 

Representatives for X did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.

In the wake of Musk's $44 billion acquisition of the social company last year, X scaled back its content moderation teams, drawing criticism from world leaders and advertisers alike over the risks of hate speech rising on the platform.

While X leadership affirmed the company has "refocused internal teams" on content moderation in the wake of the war, European Union officials threatened that X could be banned from Europe entirely if it fails to comply with rules over disinformation amid the Israel-Gaza conflict, citing concerns over "fake content and glorification of violence" and indications the platform was being used to "disseminate illegal content and disinformation in the EU."

Breaking the EU's rules, implemented through the Digital Services Act guidelines for very large social media platforms, could result in fines of up to 6% of X's revenue or expulsion from the union, Insider previously reported. The DSA includes YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook — but not Telegram — among the very large social platforms it subjects to additional security obligations.

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