Telegram: Daesh weapon in the hands of the extreme right

Shaima Hafezy

The Telegram application has gained widespread popularity among the terrorist groups, especially the Daesh terrorist organization. While the anti-terrorist states have been trying to close channels of communication, a new player has appeared on the scene trying to exploit the application for extremist purposes.

With the spread of the far-right wave in Europe, Telegram has become a platform of interaction between its elements, as do the anarchists of the extreme left.

With the loss of the organization of the terrorist advocate of the territory it controlled in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist organization continued to exist on the Tigris, an outlet that could connect with supporters.

A subsidiary of the terrorist organization published a large number of new propaganda campaigns on the use of chat groups as a mechanism against the organization’s online publishing ban, and that members of these groups were not permitted to publish any material and warned that anyone who publishes material will be expelled.

Telegram and the extreme right

The application attracts such groups; it allows the administrator to only interact with users, and the connection is protected by encryption from one end to the other; thus enhancing users’ sense of privacy.

“Telegram is the most extreme platform that the extreme right cares about,” said Valero Mazoni, an analyst specializing in extremist terrorism.

The extreme right is an ideological phenomenon that denies equality and believes in the existence of racial differences between people. The sovereignty of the white man makes its members fanatic of their race and religion, and they are hostile to Muslims, especially with the increase of migration and Islamic asylum to Europe during the past years.

In Germany, the most extreme examples of the rise of the extreme right are the “Alternative for Germany” party, as well as the Italian “Casabond” party.

According to Mazoni’s monitoring, these parties use Telegram periodically, where officials of these groups are able to disseminate news about the party or the political situation of the state to their followers, and since these parties have official status in their countries, there is nothing illegal about their activities.

In most cases, however, site officials exercise a modicum of discretion in disseminating messages of strong hatred against ethnic or religious groups, so it is difficult to find racist or anti-Semitic messages on the official channels of these institutions, but this is not the case when monitoring channels or informal groups.

Analyst Mazoni pointed out that research into the application of Telegram, using words of anti-Semitism, immigration or supremacy of the white race, would create an endless list of channels and related groups.

With the use of secrecy, these channels freely disseminate hate speech against ethnic groups, Jews and Muslims, feminism and glorify at the same time Nazism and fascism. The followers of these channels underestimate the Holocaust; they even publish memes in the comments section.