French terror investigators grapple with Telegram app, Islamic State’s messaging weapon of choice

Smartphone app Telegram, favoured by the Islamic State group thanks to the encrypted messaging it offers, is proving a headache for French anti-terror investigators.

The free-to-download instant messenger, which allows people to exchange messages, photos and videos in groups of up to 5,000 people, has attracted some 100 million users since its launch in 2013.

And there are a couple of features that make it particularly attractive to jihadists, who can not only rest assured that their private messages are out of the reach of intelligence officials, but can disperse propaganda on YouTube-like public channels.

After IS gunmen and suicide bombers massacred 130 people in Paris in November, Telegram blocked dozens of public channels that were being used to spread extremist messages.

But Russian Internet guru Pavel Durov, who founded Telegram with his brother Nikolai, insisted that not even he has the power to intercept users’ private chats.

In France, which has suffered a string of further jihadist assaults since the Paris carnage, investigators are still dealing with fallout from the communications of a IS member suspected of using Telegram to direct people to carry out attacks.