EXTREMISMTerrorgram Block Is a Welcome Step Towards Countering Violent Extremism
Terrorgram has been linked to lone-actor attacks in Slovakia, Turkey, Brazil and the United States. Its listing places it among the likes of Hamas, Islamic State, and violent white supremacist groups such as Sonnenkrieg Division and The Base.
The Australian government has listed Terrorgram—a network of violent extremist chatroom-like channels on Telegram—as an official terrorist organization. Australians found to be part of Terrorgram now face up to 25 years in prison. As an effort to counter violent extremist platforms, rather than just actors themselves, this is to be welcomed. But Australia needs to combine law enforcement measures with policies targeting our structural resilience.
Terrorgram has been linked to lone-actor attacks in Slovakia, Turkey, Brazil and the United States. Its listing places it among the likes of Hamas, Islamic State, and violent white supremacist groups such as Sonnenkrieg Division and The Base. But its network structure is fundamentally unlike these other organizations, and in this case the devil is in the details.
Terrorgram is not an organization: it is a decentralized network hosted on one of the world’s largest and best-encrypted communication platforms. Telegram has more than 1 billion global users and a history of resistance to regulatory pressure. With a headquarters in Dubai, company registration in the British Virgin Islands, and servers reportedly still in Russia, we cannot expect the Australian government to unilaterally hold Telegram to account.
The government is rightly using available tools to limit the influence and reach of groups defined by violent ideologies. The ban is necessary and will empower law enforcement operations designed to disrupt Terrorgram channels, but challenges remain. Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke highlighted that ‘you never stop chasing these characters down.’ Police will presumably infiltrate, monitor and disrupt the network, but it will be difficult to determine the identity of anonymous users. These operations may also have a dispersive effect: as policing increases, users will react and spread across more channels or to new platforms.
This platform optionality for extremists is why it’s vital to shut down immediate threats and deal with root causes simultaneously. In January, Home Affairs released an unfortunately lightweight counterterrorism and counter violent extremism strategy. But more recent government moves—such as the return of operational agencies to the Home Affairs portfolio—suggest the time is right for the concrete policy interventions so desperately needed.
