MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Telegram messenger app, known to be used by Daesh, does not seek to cooperate with the European police agency Europol in its fight against terrorism, Director of Europol Rob Wainwright said.
"There are some that simply won’t co-operate with us. One in particular causing major problems for us is Telegram… [the messenger provides] some co-operation but nowhere near what we are getting from Facebook, Twitter and some of the others," Wainwright told The Times in a comment published on Thursday.
According to the newspaper, the messenger software has been used by Daesh militants for propaganda, recruitment and control of young extremists. The jihadists have also used Facebook and Google, which have been under pressure from authorities who have tried to force such companies to make more efforts to fight extremist content, the publication said.
Daesh is a militant jihadist group operating in Syria and Iraq. It has been active in using social media to find recruits and promote its values globally. The terrorists have reportedly used WhatsApp and Telegram, in particular, for communication before the Paris attacks in November 2015. Telegram channels have also served as a propaganda platform for terrorists.
In January 2016, Telegram founder Pavel Durov said that the instant messaging service had blocked over 660 channels belonging to Daesh.
