Moore says Zello did shut down two of the channels MEMRI flagged after that first report, including one called Vilayat Kavkaz-the name of a branch of ISIS-which had already been flagged 10 times. But WIRED independently searched Zello for accounts and channels with overt terrorist language and imagery, and found results similar to those MEMRI reported. The group has been accused by the Council on American-Islamic Relations of being selectively biased against Islam, and mis-translating Arabic content to bolster its point of view. MEMRI was founded in 1998, and has researched cyber jihad for about a decade. That was a mistake," he says, noting that the company has since asked for MEMRI's assistance in finding problematic content in Arabic. Moore says he didn't seek MEMRI's insight back in 2016 because he wasn't familiar with the organization, and believed the report to be sensationalized. We need to do a better job," Moore says of the strategy’s shortcomings. But anyone can search for terror-related terms and find dozens of public channels in the results. Currently, the company filters words like "jihad" from appearing in the Trending Channels section, which surfaces the most popular channels. Those employees shut down accounts that are flagged by other users, and no one at Zello speaks Arabic. Moore says that among Zello's 25 employees, only “a couple” of part-time staffers are responsible for moderating accounts and channels. "If someone is posting an ISIS avatar or the account is called Islamic State, that should have been picked up right away," Stalinsky says. But MEMRI's Stalinsky says Zello's inaction even in the face of clearly presented evidence is cause for concern. The swarms of terrorist activity on Telegram are by now well documented. That hardly makes it unique among encrypted messaging apps. The company relies entirely on users to flag problems, an action that doesn't always guarantee results. Even as larger tech companies like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have faced years of congressional interrogation and public pressure over how they filter similar content, Zello has dedicated limited resources to this type of moderation. The list wasn't comprehensive, and didn't reference any specifically troubling conversations it was just a snapshot of accounts and channels MEMRI found easily at the time.ĭespite these signals, the Austin-based company has apparently taken a largely passive stance toward policing terrorist-affiliated public channels and accounts. While MEMRI hadn't collected actual messages, its findings included screenshots of Zello users whose avatars featured photos of ISIS’s iconic black flags, and public channels with names like “Islamic State Channel.” One channel called simply “Jihad.” described itself this way: “For the Brothers who desire to be with Mujahideen & to talk about Jihad and Islam.” Some of the channels had been advertised by ISIS sympathizers on another encrypted app, Telegram. Hours later, MEMRI deputy director Elliot Zweig sent him the report. “Can you share a copy of the report explaining ISIS uses Zello? I'm the CEO of Zello,” the message read, according to emails reviewed by WIRED and confirmed by Moore and MEMRI. Moore had learned about the findings through a Google Alert. He was seeking a copy of a report MEMRI had recently published describing how ISIS members and supporters were using Zello, which allows people to send voice messages to each other in private and also public channels. In the early morning of September 9, 2016, Bill Moore, CEO of the Austin-based walkie-talkie app company Zello, contacted the Middle East Media Research Institute.
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