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Terrorgram Administrators Celebrate New Membership Highs with Poster Featuring Top Channels "TERRORGRAM 2020: YEAR OF BLOOD" - 25 June 2020
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Bottom Line Up Front:
TRAC spends a great deal of time embedded in Telegram channels monitoring extremist activity. TRAC Analyst Cat Cooper reports on a milestone of sorts being celebrated by one right-wing group, the Terrorgram network. It released a new banner this past week touting new membership highs as "Terrorgram 2020: Year of Blood." TRAC data shows that collectively, the 25 channels of the network have more than 6,000 subscribers. This represents significant growth since its launch in 2019 which occurred following its migration from Twitter and 8chan. We note that Telegram is in the nascent stages of taking racist content off the platform, with coincidental action on the same day as the poster's release.
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Photo Above:
Telegram Channel with poster targeting Apple.
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(Right Wing Extremism) Eco-Fascists Channels Complain of The Beginning of Telegram Deletion and Apple Censorship "Press F To Pay Respect" - 25 June 2020
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As indicated above, it appears that Telegram might be in the nascent stages of taking racist content off the platform. Even though there are only a handful of confirmed channels that have been deleted, many are already complaining that the "Apple Jews" and Telegram are censoring white freedom and have started a campaign of posting "F" to pay respect for the fallen brethren channels. One major channel, Terrorwave Refined Telegram channel also appears to have been deleted. Apple has been censoring extreme far right channels for anyone using the Apple Telegram application on either their laptop or phone for at least a year. Several guides have been in circulation on how to circumvent Apple's censorship. Many also have switched to Android cell phones in order to use the Telegram application uncensored.
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TRAC INCIDENT REPORT: Suspect Killed After Mass-Knife Attack Inside the Park Inn, Central Glasgow, Scotland
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TRAC Senior Analyst continues to follow a string of recent knife attacks in the UK. The latest attack occurred at the Park Inn in central Glasgow. A number of civilians were stabbed inside the stairwell in the Park Inn. A police officer responding to the scene was critically wounded by the lone assailant, who was shot and killed during response. At least 5 stabbing victims were taken to the hospital. Last week, multiple people were killed and wounded during a similar mass stabbing in Reading (20 June 2020). On 12 June a Hasidic Jew was stabbed in London. Lebowitz notes that
The Park Inn houses refugees; the suspect could have been acting on anti-immigrant, right wing extremist impulses, though nothing can be ruled out at this point in the investigation.
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Images above:
Emergency response outside the Park Inn (top); Official Twitter post from Scotland Police.
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Photo Above:
Video screen shot of the Proof-of-life video for five aid workers abducted on the Maiduguri-Monguno Highway. The names of each captive appear below the image.
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(Video) Proof Of Life Video for 5 Aid Workers & 500,000 USD Ransom Demand Kidnapped At Various Times on Maiduguri-Monguno Highway, Borno State, Nigeria - 21 June 2020 (Islamic State West Africa (ISWA) Suspected)
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TRAC Analyst Sophia Badawy reports proof-of-life video on multiple abductions in Nigeria since 21 June. The hostages are from five different aid agencies and kidnapped on at least 3 different incidents. One hostage states his was kidnapped at a fake checkpoint set up by the Khalifa. All the hostages were kidnapped in broad daylight on Maiduguri-Monguno Highway. Though each man begs for their respective agency to intervene and rescue them, there is no mention of the actual ransom demands, $500,000 USD, which was reported by the media. It is also unclear if the ransom is $500,000 USD per person or for the group as a whole. Given, they are each from different agencies, it is likely that the demand is $500,000 per each hostage, which would fill ISWA's coffers to the brim.
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TRAC's Weekly Analyst Review is a small curated list of many events.
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TRAC Weekly Analyst Briefing
As many of our clients know, we invite one organization a week to sit in on our Analyst Briefing. The briefings take place at 10 AM US eastern time and last an hour. We meet virtually in TRAC's online conference center.
If your organization is interested in attending, please schedule with the link below. We look forward to having you join us and ask questions.
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