Threat Actor Spotlight: The Terrorgram Network: Origins, Operations, and Downfall

March 19, 2025

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In April 2024 the UK took the unprecedented step to sanction a group known as Terrorgram as a terrorist organization. The UK was the first country to take this step, proscribing the group which consists of various Telegram channels which have been used to share and encourage extremist ideologies and methodologies. This marked the first time a group that is primarily organized on a messaging app has been declared a terrorist organization.

In this blog we will explore the origins of the group, how they operated and the current status of the organization.

Who are Terrorgram?

Terrorgram (logo to the left) was an online network of neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremists that was formed on the messaging app Telegram. The group are devoted to militant accelerationism – the idea of hastening societal collapse through violent acts and used a number of different telegram channels to spread this message.

The group’s overarching objective was to inspire terrorism, leveraging propaganda to promote “white supremacist” ideology and encourage both organized and lone-wolf attacks. The concept of encouraging terrorist attacks, rather than conducting them yourself is known as stochastic terrorism. Over the past few years, Terrorgram’s activities have triggered international law enforcement crackdowns as officials sought to contain its spread of hate and violence.

Origins, Ideology, and Objectives

Terrorgram emerged in the late 2010s as an extension of earlier extremist forums and subcultures. A major influence was the now-defunct Iron March forum, which, despite only ~1,200 users, had an outsized impact on modern neo-Nazi ideology.

Iron March popularized James Mason’s book Siege, which advocated leaderless terrorist cells to destabilize society and spark a fascist revolution. From this foundation, Terrorgram adopted a militant accelerationist doctrine: it seeks to collapse the current order through stochastic terrorism, inciting followers to commit acts of violence in hopes of triggering broader chaos.

Terrorgram promoted the ideologies of neo-fascist and white supremacists. Many of the channels they operated glorified Hitler and other fascist figures, and promoted slogans like “TRAITORS WILL HANG.” Saints culture was also heavily promoted by Terrorgram users, the culture treats right-wing terrorists and mass killers as martyrs or “saints,” praising their deeds and encouraging others to emulate them.

Figure 2: Rules to be made a “Saint” by Terrorgram

The ultimate objective of this ideology is to radicalize young extremists and drive them to commit hate-fueled attacks – against minorities, government, infrastructure – to accelerate a hoped-for collapse of multicultural society.

Communication Channels and Platforms

Terrorgram’s primary base of operations was Telegram (Figure 3 to the right) – an encrypted messaging and social media app that up until recently gave extremists a relatively unpoliced platform.

The name “Terrorgram” itself is a mashup of “Telegram” and “terrorism,” reflecting how deeply the group is tied to the chat platform. The network of Terrorgram was made up of hundreds of decentralized channels which were used to communicate and share propaganda with followers. In 2021, the network encompassed 200+ neo-Nazi channels on Telegram, many openly sharing bomb-making manuals and calls to violence. Some popular channels amassed thousands of followers (one had over 16,500) despite Telegram’s nominal efforts to ban violent content.

There is little evidence of a significant dark web presence dedicated to Terrorgram; its preferred “underground” forum is effectively Telegram itself. However, when faced with crackdowns, some members discussed migrating to more obscure encrypted apps like Signal, Briar, or Session to evade surveillance.

Propaganda Methods and Recruitment Tactics

Figure 4: Propaganda booklet created and shared by Terrorgram

Terrorgram’s propaganda machine was sophisticated and deliberately geared toward inciting violence from its followers. An inner circle of propagandists, the self-described “Terrorgram Collective,” produced digital manifestos comprising of hateful ideology and practical guides. These e-magazines – circulated as PDFs in the channels – carry titles like Hard Reset and explicitly instruct readers how to commit terror attacks. In mid-2021 Terrorgram published a guide urging attacks on power grids and violence against minorities, police, journalists, and other “enemies.”

Figure 5: Propaganda shared by Terrorgram encouraging followers to attack Government, law enforcement and critical infrastructure

A second manifesto released in late 2021 combined accelerationist and eco-fascist ideology with step-by-step manuals for making weapons. By 2022, the Collective put out a third installment (the Hard Reset series) that glorified recent white supremacist attacks and detailed critical infrastructure targeting strategies, in December 2023 a Terrorgram manual described how to manufacture explosives from urea nitrate fertilizer.

Figure 6: Propaganda created by Terrorgram

Text publications are not the only types of publications that Terrorgram have produced, they have also leveraged multimedia. In October 2022, it released a 24-minute film titled “White Terror,” which celebrated dozens of terrorists from 1968 to present, hailing them as saints and martyrs. The video used actual shooter livestream footage, including clips from the 2019 Christchurch massacre and 2022 Buffalo supermarket attack, and news reels, as well as extremist messaging. The video explicitly urged viewers to carry out new terror acts, promising that “future attacks will be honored.”

In order to spread this information, the group maintained multiple channels. The channel admins would cross-promote one another’s groups, sharing posts and links to encourage followers to subscribe across the network. This created an environment in which any newcomers who found one Terrorgram channel would soon be exposed to many more.

The group also heavily relied on the use of memes and images to share their propaganda; controversial memes, catchy slogans, and insider symbols, like skull masks and sonnenrads, were used to build a subcultural identity that could appeal to alienated individuals.

Figure 7: Telegram message depicting the skull mask widely used by terrorgram and mass shooters

Notable Messages and Incidents Attributed to Terrorgram

The Terrorgram group were successful in using their propaganda to incite real world acts of violence:

In October 2022, a 19-year-old gunman attacked an LGBTQ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, killing two people. In his manifesto, the shooter explicitly credited the Terrorgram Collective as an inspiration. Terrorgram channels hailed him as a martyr after the fact, adding him to their list of “saints.”

In early 2023, FBI agents foiled a plan to attack the electrical grid around Baltimore, Maryland, arresting Brandon Russell (an Atomwaffen Division founder) and an accomplice. Both were active in Terrorgram circles and had been sharing the network’s materials.

In January 2024, agents raiding the Florida home of a man found he had a Terrorgram-produced manual and a copy of Mein Kampf alongside plans for a mass shooting. Lightner had posted on Telegram about wanting to murder people of color and Jews.

Brazilian investigators suspect that a 2022 school shooter in Aracruz, Brazil (who killed 4 people) had engaged with neo-Nazi online content aligned with Terrorgram’s ideology.

In August 2024, a young man carried out a knife attack at a mosque in Eskisehir, Turkey, injuring several worshippers – an incident the U.S. State Department later cited as having been “motivated and facilitated” by Terrorgram propaganda.

In January 2025, an extremist in Nashville committed a school shooting that channels in the network celebrated as part of their “accelerationist” campaign.

It is believed that the Terrorgram were successful inciting violence in others and encouraging lone wolf attacks as they were very specific about what they were asking their followers to do. The group would often provide targeting lists as well as tactical guides and information about the successes and failures of previous mass shooters as a blueprint for future attacks. The network has circulated spreadsheets of critical infrastructure sites and personal information of officials/journalists deemed enemies. It had also urged followers to attack power stations, synagogues, LGBTQ venues, refugee centers – any targets that fit its apocalyptic white supremacist worldview.

Law Enforcement Actions and Countermeasures

In April 2024, the United Kingdom formally proscribed the Terrorgram Collective as a terrorist organization, making it a criminal offense to belong to or support it. British officials warned that the network “spreads vile propaganda” and “aims to radicalize young people to conduct heinous terrorist acts.” This UK ban put Terrorgram in the same category as ISIS or National Action (another neo-Nazi group), signaling how seriously authorities viewed the threat. The group were then also designated by the United States Government in January 2025.

Police in Canada arrested two Ontario men in December 2023 on terrorism charges for their role in creating Terrorgram propaganda. These individuals, identified in court documents as Matthew Althorpe and Kristoffer Nippak, allegedly helped author the Terrorgram manifestos and produced recruiting videos for Atomwaffen Division. One was charged with multiple counts of participating in and facilitating a terrorist group and even instructing others to carry out terrorism. The other faced a lesser charge of contributing to a terrorist group’s activities.

In September 2024, federal prosecutors in California unsealed a 15-count indictment against Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison, accused ringleaders of the Terrorgram Collective. According to the Department of Justice, Humber and Allison used Telegram to solicit hate crimes and terrorist attacks against Black, Jewish, LGBTQ, and immigrant communities, and even solicited the murder of specific government officials. These arrests were a significant blow to Terrorgram’s leadership, as Humber and Allison were believed to be key organizers behind the scenes, their Telegram aliases “Ryder_Returns” and “BTC” were well-known in the extremist chats.

Since the arrest of Telegram’s CEO in 2024, Telegram has changed its terms and conditions and how it operates with law enforcement to respond to claims they allow extremist and other criminal activity to be openly shared on their platform. While Telegram has insisted that “calls to violence have no place” on its service and claims it removed several channels using the “Terrorgram” name in the past, it is clear that these groups were allowed to operate for multiple years with no consequences from the platform, allowing them to incite violence and lead to the murder and plots to murder multiple individuals.

Current Status of the Group

With its leaders behind bars or on the run and global sanctions in place, the Terrorgram network has been severely disrupted as of 2025. Counterterrorism experts observe that a string of arrests in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and elsewhere over 2023–2024 dismantled the collective’s structure. Many of the most active channels went quiet or into lockdown mode following the crackdowns.

Terrorgram as an identifiable entity has not openly rebranded under a new name – at least not yet. It is possible that remnants of the community have splintered into smaller cells or migrated to other fringe platforms without the Terrorgram label. Indeed, the ideology of militant accelerationism predated Terrorgram and will persist beyond it, so authorities remain vigilant for copycats.

Conclusion

Terrorgram’s story—from its genesis in shadowy neo-Nazi forums to its rapid expansion on Telegram, and finally to its undoing by global law enforcement—underscores the evolving landscape of extremist threats. It operated at the volatile intersection of online subculture and real-world violence, proving that internet memes and manifestos can indeed have deadly consequences. While the collective as originally known has been largely torn down, the ideological fuel it spread is still out there. Counterterrorism efforts will need to remain adaptable and collaborative across borders to prevent the next “Terrorgram” from taking root.