Terrorists on Telegram - February 2024

According to French investigators, the group had relied in part on Telegram and WhatsApp to coordinate and plan the attacks. [...] Two weeks prior to the attack, a message appeared on a Telegram channel calling on ISIS supporters to “prepare a gift for the filthy pigs/apes” in advance of the holiday season. [...] (Source: BBC News) • October 2023 – Gaza Strip: Following Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel in which approximately 1,200 people are killed, Hamas continues its use of Telegram Hamas uses Telegram to disseminate information and graphic images of the war and to encourage members to act on behalf of the group. [...] Despite action taken to make Telegram more inhospitable to ISIS and al- Qaeda, further steps need to be made to curtail ISIS’s access to Telegram’s private chats given evidence that the platform has been used to plan and coordinate attacks. [...] And despite efforts by Durov to present Telegram as a refuge for privacy and encryption, the company has previously been a safe haven for groups like ISIS and the violent extreme right, and continues to be used for propaganda purposes by ISIS, Hamas, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban.