- Umar Mohammad, suspected suicide attacker in the Delhi blast, was part of a radical doctors' group on Telegram
- Telegram is widely used messaging app, but it also hosts terrorism, criminal activities, and extremist content
- Terrorist groups use Telegram for recruitment, fundraising, and coordinating attacks globally
Umar Mohammad, the doctor suspected to be the suicide attacker in the Delhi car blast, was part of a radical doctors' group that coordinated on the popular messaging app Telegram. Umar, according to Delhi police sources, was linked to the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed. He triggered the explosion near the iconic Red Fort after he "panicked" following the arrest of two associates – also doctors – believed to be key members of the JeM's terror module, in the past few days, sources said.
For millions of users across the globe, Telegram is like any other secure social media or messaging app. But the encrypted application, which positions itself as a privacy-focused, secure messaging platform, is reportedly becoming a melting pot of terrorism, criminal activities, disinformation, child sexual abuse material, and racist incitement.
About Telegram
Telegram was founded in 2013 by Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov and his brother Nikolai Durov. Over the years, the messaging app's ease of use, its public channels and, most importantly, its ability to encrypt private conversations have fuelled its global appeal and made it the face of global dissent.
The messenger was used by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to rally his compatriots for repelling the Russian invasion. In Hong Kong, activists used Telegram to organise demonstrations against a repressive law. In Belarus, pro-democracy forces turned to the platform to protest against election fraud.
Terrorism on Telegram
But the less moderated online spaces provided by Telegram have also enabled extremists to reach wider masses and do self-promotion, brand development, and propaganda dissemination. Terrorist groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, among others, and extremist organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah have shifted their communications onto the app for purposes that may include recruiting new members, fundraising, inciting violence, and even coordinating terrorist activity outside detection or interference from law enforcement.
In 2015, when these concerns were raised at a TechCrunch conference, Telegram founder Pavel Durov asserted that “[t]he right for privacy is more important [to Telegram] than our fear of bad things happening, like terrorism.”
Two months later, the Islamic State carried out its deadliest terrorist attack on French soil, killing 130 people and wounding 350 others. Later, French investigators found that the group had relied in part on Telegram and WhatsApp to coordinate and plan the attacks.
Since the Paris attacks, Telegram has revised its formal position and pledged to remove ISIS accounts, bots, and chats from public channels. While ISIS propaganda remains on Telegram as of February 2024, its presence is often minimal and less stable, according to a report by Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a nonprofit and nonpartisan international policy organisation working to combat the growing threat posed by extremist ideologies.
Moreover, a recent New York Times investigation found that Telegram's privacy features enable criminals and terrorists to organise at scale and to sidestep scrutiny from the authorities.
How Telegram's Policies Promote Criminal Activities
The New York-based publication said it analysed more than 3.2 million Telegram messages from over 16,000 channels and found that Telegram looked the other way as illegal and extremist activities have flourished openly on the app. The investigation found that around 1,500 channels operated by white supremacists openly flourished on the app, coordinating activities among almost one million people around the world. At least two dozen channels also sold weapons, while at least 22 channels advertised the delivery of MDMA, cocaine, heroin and other drugs to more than 20 countries.
Telegram's privacy policy puts strict parameters around cooperation with law enforcement authorities. According to Axel Neff, who helped start Telegram, the company's core team of about 60 employees, 30 of whom are engineers, is too small to monitor the platform for criminal conduct.
“If Telegram receives a court order that confirms you're a terror suspect, we may disclose your IP address and phone number to the relevant authorities. So far, this has never happened," he told Frontline in 2024.
In a 2024 interview with Fox News, Durov himself said his company ignores requests for information from government agencies that aren't “in line with our values of freedom of speech and protecting people's private correspondence." He even admitted that Telegram refused to cooperate with the US congressional committee probing the Capitol riots of January 6, 2021.
A Telegram spokesperson also told Frontline that the company stores “very limited data” on its users, and “in most cases it is impossible for Telegram to access this data in order to provide it for the authorities.”
“Police, governments and users are able to report content to Telegram they believe is illegal. Telegram processes these reports according to its terms of service,” the spokesperson said.
