Encrypted app used in campus protest planning deployed for DNC demonstrations
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators who plan to “shut down” the Democratic National Convention this week are taking cues from New York City, where protests on college campuses were orchestrated with the help of an encrypted messaging network.
Over the spring, student groups and pro-Palestinian organizations used the app Telegram to distribute how-to manuals on occupying buildings and other rally tactics, provide real-time updates on police movements and, in some cases, share explicitly pro-Hamas content.
And there are signs protesters are using the same tactics to plan massive demonstrations at the convention, where organizers hope to pressure Vice President Kamala Harris to take a harder stance against the Israeli government and its military campaign in Gaza.
“Make it great like ‘68,” one group posted to Telegram, referencing large Vietnam War protests at the DNC that year. “Shut down the DNC for Gaza!”
The post, which encouraged demonstrators to show up outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago at 7 p.m. on Aug. 20, was circulated on Resistance News Network, an organization on the radar of experts on extremism.