Apple is being sued for not removing Telegram from App Store, here’s why

They claim that Apple is letting Telegram stay on App Store despite the knowledge that “Telegram is being used to intimidate, threaten, and coerce members of the public."

FILE - This March 19, 2018, file photo shows Apple's App Store app in Baltimore. Apple will begin spelling out what kinds of personal information is being collected by the digital services displayed in its app stores for iPhones and other products made by the trendsetting company. The additional disclosures will begin to appear in apps made for iPads, Mac computers and Apple's TV streaming device, as well as its biggest moneymaker, the iPhone. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File) (AP)

Apple has been strict with its App Store guidelines and we have seen it with Epic's Fortnite case. The company is also in the news for removing the Parler app that was apparently used for the recent US Capitol riots. Now, the iPhone maker is being sued for not removing an app that is claimed to be used for similar work – Telegram. The lawsuit was filed over the weekend at the US District Court for the Northern District of California from Ambassador Marc Ginsberg and the Coalition for a Safer Web (CSW).

They claim (via Apple Insider) that Apple is letting Telegram stay on App Store despite the knowledge that “Telegram is being used to intimidate, threaten, and coerce members of the public." This means Apple is said to be failing to follow its own policy and guidelines regarding app content. This indirectly also means that the company is allowing users to continue their activities on Telegram.

As per a press release issued by CSW in June last year, Telegram was being used as a "communications channel for the Russian government and affiliated Neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups, sowing misinformation and racial division in the United States and in Europe." In addition, Ginsberg separately wrote to Apple CEO Tim Cook on behalf of the CSW in July, asking to remove the app from the App Store.

What's more is that the suit alleges Telegram being used to "coordinate and incite extreme violence" just before the inauguration of President-Elect Joe Biden. "Some users have called on followers to abandon plans for a second protest in Washington in favor of surprise attacks nationwide," states the filing.

Apple, however, is yet to respond.