ISIS supporters have used the social media platform Rocket Chat to celebrate the terrorist atrocities in Nice, which left three people dead.
Researchers at the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) think tank said they had monitored Rocket Chat media pages in the aftermath of the attacks last week and discovered posts showing bodies of the victims, two of whom were partially beheaded in the attack at a church.
Rocket Chat uses its own servers, which allows users to administer their own social-media networks.
The CEP found ISIS supporters shared images of the Nice attacker, Brahim Aioussaoi, and a video allegedly showing emergency personnel recovering a body.
There were also further posts calling for the group’s supporters to renew their pledge to its leader.
Rocket Chat is insulated from outside attack, “which means that it's a place where conversations and content can be really interesting,” said Charlie Winter, of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London.
“There will be further evolution and innovation in the next six months to a year as ISIS tries to figure out a new more sustainable model.
“The platform that ISIS will be using in six months’ time might not yet exist."
Last year, a report by Europol said ISIS has been turning to the "decentralised web" to find new sites after a crackdown by Facebook, Twitter and Telegram.
It had been dominant on Telegram until the platform deleted thousands of its accounts.
"The decentralised web gives users more say about where their data is stored, avoiding reliance on the big internet gatekeepers like Google and Facebook," author Peter King said in the report, titled IS Group’s Experiments with the Decentralised Web.
"Decentralised platforms like Rocket Chat and ZeroNet have proved attractive for ISIS media operatives, as the developers of those platforms have no way of acting against content that is stored on user-operated servers or dispersed across the user community.
"This contrasts with social media giants like Facebook and Twitter and messaging apps like Telegram – all with centralised data stores – which actively target content and accounts associated with [extremists]."
The paper was released at the European Counter-Terrorism Centre advisory network, at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague.
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Fixtures and results:
Wed, Aug 29:
- Malaysia bt Hong Kong by 3 wickets
- Oman bt Nepal by 7 wickets
- UAE bt Singapore by 215 runs
Thu, Aug 30: UAE v Nepal; Hong Kong v Singapore; Malaysia v Oman
Sat, Sep 1: UAE v Hong Kong; Oman v Singapore; Malaysia v Nepal
Sun, Sep 2: Hong Kong v Oman; Malaysia v UAE; Nepal v Singapore
Tue, Sep 4: Malaysia v Singapore; UAE v Oman; Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu, Sep 6: Final
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Company%20profile
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Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Scotland v Ireland:
Scotland (15-1): Stuart Hogg; Tommy Seymour, Huw Jones, Sam Johnson, Sean Maitland; Finn Russell, Greig Laidlaw (capt); Josh Strauss, James Ritchie, Ryan Wilson; Jonny Gray, Grant Gilchrist; Simon Berghan, Stuart McInally, Allan Dell
Replacements: Fraser Brown, Jamie Bhatti, D'arcy Rae, Ben Toolis, Rob Harley, Ali Price, Pete Horne, Blair Kinghorn
Coach: Gregor Townsend (SCO)
Ireland (15-1): Rob Kearney; Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack Conan, Sean O'Brien, Peter O'Mahony; James Ryan, Quinn Roux; Tadhg Furlong, Rory Best (capt), Cian Healy
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Ultan Dillane, Josh van der Flier, John Cooney, Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour
Coach: Joe Schmidt (NZL)
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