NFT

Terror groups may turn to NFTs to raise funds and spread messages — WSJ


NFT


The primary identified case of a nonfungible token (NFT) created and shared by a “terrorist sympathizer” has come to mild, elevating issues that the immutable nature of blockchain tech might assist the unfold of terrorist messages and propaganda. 

In a Sept. 4 article in The Wall Road Journal (WSJ), intelligence consultants stated the NFT might be an indication that Islamic State and different terror teams can also be utilizing blockchain know-how to evade sanctions and lift funds for his or her terrorist campaigns.

The NFT in query was reportedly found by Raphael Gluck, co-founder of the U.S.-based analysis agency Jihadoscope, who found the NFT by way of pro-ISIS social-media accounts.

The digital token, named “IS-NEWS #01,” is alleged to be a picture bearing the Islamic State’s emblem with textual content praising Afghanistan-based Islamic militants for attacking a Taliban place.

Mario Cosby, a former federal intelligence analyst specializing in blockchain currencies, stated the person created one other two different NFTs on Aug. 26; one exhibiting an Islamic State fighter instructing college students to make explosives and the opposite condemning smoking cigarettes.

A screenshot of the IS-NEWS #01 NFT (left). Supply: The Wall Road Journal

The nationwide safety analysts stated this might be an indication that terrorist teams could also be utilizing the rising know-how to unfold their message and check new funding methods, although the NFT in query was not listed on the market nor had it been traded. 

“It is very a lot an experiment […] to seek out methods to make content material indestructible,” stated Gluck.

The digital token was reportedly listed on NFT market OpenSea, however the firm rapidly took the itemizing down and closed the posters account, citing a “zero-tolerance coverage on inciting hate and violence.”

The trio of NFTs was additionally seen on the NFT market Rarible and a number of other others earlier than being taken down. 

Whereas not one of the NFTs seem to have been traded, Cosby says the existence of the tokens is a trigger for concern as a result of “it’s as censorship-proof as you may get,” including:

“There’s probably not something anybody can do to really take this NFT down.”

Safety consultants have beforehand expressed their issues concerning the future potential for terrorists to take advantage of rising applied sciences and markets, together with NFTs, to fund assaults.

In February, the U.S. Treasury Division launched a examine highlighting the expansion of the marketplace for NFTs as an space of potential concern.

In March, Israeli authorities seized a set of 30 crypto wallets from 12 alternate accounts linked to Hamas, a militant group based mostly within the Gaza Strip.

Associated: Terrorists nonetheless increase cash by way of crypto, however the affect is restricted

Final April, Matthew Levitt, director of the Jeanette and Eli Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Close to East Coverage instructed Cointelegraph that whereas crypto has been linked to a number of terror financing circumstances, “it has not but change into a major technique of terror financing.”


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