How fanatics can easily hide and share behind their webs of anonymity
As Amber Rudd identifies three services that she says could be used to spread extremism in the UK,
examines the way they work and who uses them Telegram is a messaging service used by 100 million active users a month.
Users can use Telegram from computers as well as phones and can also send files, videos and pictures.
After creating an account by giving a phone number, users can anonymously message each other, message groups of up to 5,000, or create “channels” which broadcast publicly to larger audiences. In addition to standard encryption Telegram has ultra-secure “secret chats” which can only be accessed from the two devices involved and leave no trace on the company’s servers.
Users can even instruct messages and content to self-destruct. The service’s security, and commitment to privacy, has led to it being called the messaging app of choice for jihadis. In December, Washington’s Middle East Media Research Institute said: “It has surpassed Twitter as the most important platform.”
The think tank’s director Steve Stalinsky added: “Just about every second of the day, a jihadi is posting something new on Telegram.” Last year Isil used a Telegram channel to instruct would-be terrorists to prepare a “Christmas gift for the filthy pigs/apes” and used the service to claim credit for the attack which killed 12 in a Berlin market. Created by Russians Pavel and Nikolai Durov, Telegram is registered at Companies House in the UK with two listed “members” – Dogged Labs Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands and Telegraph Inc, registered in Belize. It claims Berlin as an HQ. Pavel Durov has said: “Privacy, ultimately, is more important than our fear of bad things happening, like terrorism.”