“Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years Day is very soon,” began a Dec. 6 posting on one of the terrorist group’s usual Telegram bulletin boards. “So let’s prepare a gift for the filthy pigs/apes.”
Two weeks later, when a truck mowed down pedestrians at a crowded Berlin Christmas market, the group again used Telegram, this time to claim credit for the attack. On Friday, after chief suspect Anis Amri was killed in a Milan shootout, Telegram broadcast his posthumous video. The Tunisian migrant had fled Berlin and crisscrossed France and Italy before being stopped by Italian police looking for a burglary suspect. In his video he pledges allegiance to the Islamic State and issues a chilling warning to Westerners: “God willing, we will slaughter you.”
The words and images flew across the globe over a network that terrorist leaders describe as ideal for their purposes — one that is highly discreet, with its heavy encryption and secret chat rooms, but also highly permissive, allowing violent Islamist groups to exchange ideas and spread propaganda with minimal interference. The same conclusion has been reached by terrorism analysts who say Telegram is now overwhelmingly preferred by extremist groups such as the Islamic State, in part because the company has failed to adopt the aggressive measures used by its competitors to kick terrorists off its channels.
A report this week by an organization that monitors Islamist militants’ Internet communications calls Telegram “the app of choice for many ISIS, pro-ISIS and other jihadi and terrorist elements.” The study describes the terrorists’ mass migration to Telegram as one of the most striking developments in the field recently. ISIS is one of the common acronyms for the Islamic State.
“It has surpassed Twitter as the most important platform,” said Steven Stalinsky, lead author of the report by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute, also known as MEMRI. “All the big groups are on it. We see ISIS talking about the benefits of Telegram and encouraging its followers to use it.”
Two weeks later, when a truck mowed down pedestrians at a crowded Berlin Christmas market, the group again used Telegram, this time to claim credit for the attack. On Friday, after chief suspect Anis Amri was killed in a Milan shootout, Telegram broadcast his posthumous video. The Tunisian migrant had fled Berlin and crisscrossed France and Italy before being stopped by Italian police looking for a burglary suspect. In his video he pledges allegiance to the Islamic State and issues a chilling warning to Westerners: “God willing, we will slaughter you.”
The words and images flew across the globe over a network that terrorist leaders describe as ideal for their purposes — one that is highly discreet, with its heavy encryption and secret chat rooms, but also highly permissive, allowing violent Islamist groups to exchange ideas and spread propaganda with minimal interference. The same conclusion has been reached by terrorism analysts who say Telegram is now overwhelmingly preferred by extremist groups such as the Islamic State, in part because the company has failed to adopt the aggressive measures used by its competitors to kick terrorists off its channels.
A report this week by an organization that monitors Islamist militants’ Internet communications calls Telegram “the app of choice for many ISIS, pro-ISIS and other jihadi and terrorist elements.” The study describes the terrorists’ mass migration to Telegram as one of the most striking developments in the field recently. ISIS is one of the common acronyms for the Islamic State.
“It has surpassed Twitter as the most important platform,” said Steven Stalinsky, lead author of the report by the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute, also known as MEMRI. “All the big groups are on it. We see ISIS talking about the benefits of Telegram and encouraging its followers to use it.”
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