Encryption & terroristsTelegram IM app recalibrates policies after Paris attacks
Pavel Durov, the creator of the popular instant messaging app Telegram, has said that following the Paris terrorist attacks, his company has blocked dozens of accounts associated with the jihadist Islamic State group. As is the case with other technology companies, Telegram is trying to negotiate the balance between privacy and security: the same privacy-enhancing technology which keeps customers’ communication private, also helps terrorists communicate with each other and plot attacks safe from monitoring and surveillance by intelligence agencies and law enforcement.
Pavel Durov, the creator of the popular instant messaging app Telegram, has said that following the Paris terrorist attacks, his company has blocked dozens of accounts associated with the jihadist Islamic State group.
As is the case with other technology companies, Telegram has had to negotiate the fine balance between offering its customers privacy, as the demand for it was growing in the wake of the 2013 Edward Snowden revelations, and security: the same encryption and privacy-enhancing features which help customers maintain their communication private, also help terrorists and criminals communicate with each other and plot attacks and heists safe from monitoring and surveillance by intelligence agencies and law enforcement.
Discovery News reports that Telegram, a free app launched in 2013, said it “provides a secure means of communications everywhere on the planet” and blasts Internet giants Facebook and Google on its Web site for giving private data to third parties.
Telegram offers an encrypted chat service with self-destructing messages. It also offers a way to create public channels to broadcast to unlimited audiences.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) noted that the technology has become popular among jihadi groups, with ISIS and Al-Qaeda groups creating several channels (see “Jihadis Shift to Using Secure Communication App Telegram’s Channels Service,” Inquiry & Analysis Series Report No.1198, 29 October 2015).
“We were disturbed to learn that Telegram’s public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda,” the service said on its own Twitter account late Wednesday.
“As a result, this week alone we blocked 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages,” it added.
Telegram added that it identifies offensive or unacceptable public content by reviewing user reports.
“We were able to identify and block these public ISIS channels thanks to your reports,” it said.
Discovery News quotes Durov to say that the “only publicly available channels could be reported and blocked” and denied that he can intercept conversations.
Telegram’s customer case has grown rapidly since 2013. The company does not disclose how many customers it has, but in August it sends about ten billion messages every day.
Leaders of U.S. and European law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been pushing for restrictions on end-to-end encryption, a technology which, according the director of MI5, the British spy agency, has turned the Internet into a “haven for terrorists.”
