Introduction
Telegram And Its Refusal To Take Action Against ISIS And Other Jihadi Accounts
The November 13, 2015 Paris attacks relaunched the debate about Islamic State (ISIS) and other jihadi use of encryption technology and apps, with particular attention, and unprecedentedly negative media coverage, directed at Telegram, which these groups and individuals now heavily favor. Much of this negative reporting about Telegram came as a result of the MEMRI report Jihadis Shift To Using Secure Communication App Telegram's Channels Service, by MEMRI JTTM research fellow M. Khayat, released two weeks previously and heavily cited in the media.
Telegram developer Pavel Durov, who previously had consistently refused to remove ISIS and other jihadi groups and channels from the platform, grudgingly tweeted on November 18, "This week we blocked 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages."
Jihadi accounts on Twitter shared news of the blocks (see MEMRI report )
On November 19, 2015, he tweeted, including to the MEMRI Twitter account, that "groups are not channels. And we've been against ISIS public content since forever (see our FAQ)."
MEMRI then sent a series of tweets to Durov highlighting how ISIS and Al-Qaeda have embraced Telegram:
In an interview following Durov's announcement that Telegram was shutting down groups, MEMRI Executive Director Steven Stalinsky explained to The Washington Times how ISIS was using Telegram and predicted that even if ISIS-connected groups were removed, they would not be gone for long and would very quickly be back. This turned out to be exactly what happened - ISIS and Al-Qaeda groups and accounts, notably Nashir, Fursan Al-Raf, CyberCaliphate, Al-Battar, and Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) - announced shortly thereafter that they had returned to Telegram. Stalinsky said: "We are sure there are lots of private encrypted discussions happening that are just not public but continue... It's positive he [Durov] removed the accounts, but he did it as a temporary thing so as not to get bad press and pressure."
Durov's claim that Telegram "has been against ISIS public content since forever" does not reflect the reality of how the group continues to use the service freely.
*Steven Stalinsky is Executive Director of MEMRI