According to new research, the terrorist group Hamas used social media platforms to instill fear by sharing their videos, statements, and other information as they wage war on Israel.
According to a report, Hamas used Telegram, a messaging platform— not well known in the U.S.— to spread their evil through its direct messaging, group chats, and channels, becoming the top place to get content and information straight from the source.
"A big part of the strategy of inciting terror is not just the attack … but also depends on their ability to incite fear in especially online spaces," Graham Brookie, senior director of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, said.
The terrorist group used Telegram to post graphic and violent videos from its attack on Israel, where women and children were brutally killed. Since the initial attack on the Jewish country, the group's channel has seen its number of followers skyrocket.
The platform was also used to share explicit footage from the war in Israel, including a woman kidnapped at a music festival near Gaza and families being murdered. Hamas also used its channel to send a statement informing people that the terrorist group would begin executing civilian hostages for every unannounced attack on Gaza.
Here is what Josh Lipowsky, research analyst for the Counter Extremism Project, told the Washington Examiner:
Hamas utilizes Telegram channels in Arabic and English to further spread its propaganda through the distribution of the group's press releases and statements to thousands of subscribers to those channels. Much of what appears on the channels is taken directly from Hamas's website, offering another direct method of pushing out its releases to followers who, given the nature of Telegram, have specifically sought out the group," Lipowsky said. As of earlier this afternoon, Hamas's main website, both the Arabic and English versions, is down, hindering Hamas's ability to push out its message at a time it is trying to control the narrative of its vicious attack," he added. "The Telegram channels provide Hamas with redundancies to continue their propaganda push across platforms."
Many social media platforms, including Twitter, have banned Hamas-affiliated accounts and politicians.