Telegram’s Secret Chats and Bots a Boon for ISIS

The Straits Times

19 January 2016

Dymples Leong

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took to Telegram, an encrypted messaging application platform, to claim responsibility for the recent attacks in Jakarta, thrusting encrypted messaging apps into the limelight.

This comes on the back of Telegram’s move to block access to 164 ISIS-related channels made by the terrorist groups and their supporters in the aftermath of the 2015 Paris attacks.

News of the ISIS statement was also circulated within pro-ISIS channels on Telegram. The revelations added to concerns raised since December 2014 that the secure messaging app was used by ISIS as a preferred choice to disseminate its propaganda.

Telegram has some attributes that make it particularly attractive to groups like ISIS.

… Dymples Leong is a research analyst at the Centre of Excellence for National Security, a constituent unit of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

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