Apple, Google remove Hezbollah TV app
A streaming app from the group's Lebanese-based satellite network has been scrubbed from the App Store and Google Play.
Updated: 3:29 PT
Google and Apple have both removed an application from their respective app stores that Hezbollah was advertising promoting streaming video from its Al-Manar Lebanon-based satellite network.
A spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League said that his organization sent Apple a letter last Friday when it became aware of the app. It was removed by Apple on Sunday.
"We did not have any response from them so it may or may not been a result of our reaching out to them," said the ADL spokesman, Todd Gutnick.
Al Manar, the broadcasting arm of Hezbollah, advertised the app on its television network. The U.S. Department of State has included Al-Manar on its Terrorism Exclusion List in December 2004.
A Shi'a militant group and political party inside Lebanon, Hezbollah is considered by the U.S., Israel and many western states to be a terrorist group. However, it has support inside Lebanon and much of the wider Arab world, where it enjoys status as a domestic political player and resistance group. At the same time, it has been accused of involvement in terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. Also, Al Manar television, which essentially functions as the group's PR organ, has run entertainment programs based on the "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." as well as other content with anti-Semitic undertones. We've contacted Al Manar for comment and will update this post when we hear back.