Terrorist groups are turning to NFTs to raise funds and spread messages.
A simple digital card praising Islamist militants for an attack on a Taliban position in Afghanistan last month is the first NFT created and distributed by terrorist supporters, according to former senior US intelligence officials.
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It's a sign that Islamic State and other terrorist groups may be preparing to use emerging financial technology to circumvent Western efforts to crack down on online fundraising and messaging, they said.
The NFT, visible on at least one NFT trading site and titled “IS-NEWS #01,” bears the Islamic State emblem. It was created by a supporter of the group, likely as an experiment to test a new outreach and funding for ISIS, the former officials said. Regulators and national security officials have expressed concern about the potential for terrorists to exploit new financial technologies and markets, including NFTs.
“It was just a matter of time,” said Yaya Fanusie, a former economic and counterterrorism analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency.
An NFT is a unit of data stored on a blockchain — a database of transactions organized without the need for a central trusted authority. The technology first emerged as a means of tracking, valuing, and trading digital assets, but developers say it has much broader applications, such as digital concert and branded collectibles, such as digital trading cards.
IS-NEWS #01 does not appear to have been traded, but its existence on the blockchain – distributed across countless systems connected to the internet – makes it nearly impossible for the Department of Justice and other law enforcement agencies to remove it from the internet, unlike, say, a news bulletin located on a conventional website served by a host.
“There’s no way anyone can take down this NFT,” said Mario Cosby, a former federal intelligence analyst who specializes in blockchain currencies.
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Since many social media platforms remove links to offensive NFTs, the technology doesn’t lend itself to online reproduction that makes tweets or videos go viral. However, the more details of the NFT blockchain are shared, the more people will see them.
ISIS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and by the Arabic acronym Daesh, is a militant Islamist group and former unrecognized quasi-state that follows the Salafi jihadist branch of Sunni Islam.
Western officials are concerned that NFTs could spread ISIS messages and reignite unrest.
Mr. Cosby said that two other NFTs created by the same user on the same day, August 26, also feature Islamic State features.
Information source: wsj.com
