Telegram’s role in right-wing mobilization and rising US Election Day concerns

Katherine Keneally, Director of Threat Analysis and Prevention at ISD US, spoke to the New York Times (NYT) ahead of US Election Day about the right-wing activity on Telegram and the platform’s role in mobilization. She explained how views shared on Telegram should not be dismissed as those of a fringe minority but rather be taken as a warning of what could happen on November 5 and beyond. “Telegram is very often central to actually organizing people to engage in offline activity,” she said, sharing that she attended a meeting for election skeptics in 2022 in Montana where participants taught each other how to use the platform.

As the election season draws to an end, domestic violent extremists (DVEs), as described by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have been seeking alternative online spaces with fewer moderation barriers. In a conversation with WIRED about rising calls for violence—including “civil war” rhetoric that has only gained prominence since the Capitol riot—Katherine stated: “We’ve seen people move from mainstream platforms, where they were active in organizing January 6, and shift to platforms that offer more perceived anonymity, less moderation, and less reporting to law enforcement…. It is a law enforcement intelligence gap, it’s a gap for the whole field. We don’t see everything we once did.”

DHS told WIRED that they are unable to grasp a full scale of the threat due extremists becoming more tech savvy. “We lack a complete threat picture due the ability of some DVEs to evade law enforcement using advanced encryption.”

Katherine’s interview with the NYT is cited in Forbes.