The Alliance for a Safer Web sued Apple for failing to remove access to the Telegram app while still banning Parler, and claimed that hate groups and extremists used the app to attack the Capitol.
The lawsuit was filed Sunday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California,
The lawsuit accuses Ambassador Marc Ginsberg and The Apple Alliance of allowing Telegram to be available in the app store, despite knowing that the app is being used to intimidate, threaten and coerce members of the public.
The Alliance is described as a nonpartisan, non-profit defense organization to enforce the removal of extremist and terrorist content from social media platforms, and the Alliance claims that Apple has failed to follow its policy and guidelines regarding Telegram content.
By doing so, Apple allows the most harmful Telegram users to continue their activities.
The lawsuit follows after Apple, Google, Amazon and others severed ties with Parler for failing to manage content.
The application is allegedly used to plan and coordinate illegal activities in Washington, D.C., including the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
The lawsuit against Apple is pushing for a closer examination of Telegram with the aim of cancelling the platform for the encrypted messaging app for allegedly similar activities.
According to a June 2020 coalition press release cited by the lawsuit, Telegram is being used as a communications channel for the Russian government and its neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups, leading to the dissemination of misinformation and ethnic division in the United States and Europe.
Ginsberg also wrote to Apple's CEO on behalf of the alliance in July, demanding that the program be temporarily canceled, given his role in inciting extremist violence.
There is also an accusation that anti-black and anti-Semitic groups have openly used Telegram with little oversight of content from app management.
Despite coalition warnings and media reports about the app, Apple has taken no action against it similar to its action against Parler.
The suit also alleges the use of Telegram to coordinate and incite violence prior to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
The suit alleged that some users had asked their followers to abandon plans for a second protest in Washington in favor of surprise nationwide attacks.
The suit also points to an injustice in how Apple applies its rules, citing both the removal of Parler and the removal of fortnight for violating its guidelines.
At the same time, it is said that the use of Telegram violates in various ways the app store guidelines since the app's launch in 2013.
The Alliance claims that Telegram developers have not taken any meaningful action to curb these flagrant, systematic and ongoing violations.
The suit requires a jury trial and requires the court to award damages to each plaintiff, and to issue an injunction banning Telegram from the App Store until it complies with Apple's guidelines and legal costs.
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