Matt Hussey, editorial director of NEAR Protocol (and former editor-in-chief of Decrypt) responded to the news of the Telegram group with “#meIRL.” The channel also called on people to turn out for illegal assemblies and listed the things that participants should bring along with them, showing prior planning was in the works for riots. The messages also incited people to hurl toxic gas bombs at police and MTR stations, he added. Hui said the messages, which included urging the disruption of airport operations, were attempts to incite followers to make use of poisonous, corrosive or flammable substances to vandalize police vehicles, and also called on others to make weapons to harm police. Earlier, crypto enthusiasts had created a self-described “meme app” dubbed “gm” app wherein users would greet each other with “gm” or “good morning” messages. However, in September 2021, the gm app was down after a hacker reportedly gained access to the user data. On June 7, Perekopsky met with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, an avid user of the platform. According to the firm's VP, the main subject of the meeting was "freedom of expression."
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