Arrest of alleged Terrorgram collective leaders sparks panic in neo-Nazi Telegram channels

This article is part of a collaboration between FRONTLINE and ProPublica that will produce a documentary.

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The recent crackdown on social media platform Telegram has sparked a wave of panic among neo-Nazis who have made the app their home base, posting hateful content and plotting violence.

“Shut it down,” one person wrote in a white supremacist chat Tuesday, hours after Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced he would begin sharing the identifying information of some users with law enforcement.

With more than 900 million users worldwide, Telegram has been both revered and criticized for its hands-off approach to content moderation. The platform made headlines this summer when French authorities arrested Durov, seeking to prosecute him for illegal activities conducted or facilitated on the platform—including organized drug trafficking, child pornography, and fraud.

Durov called the allegations “misguided.” But he acknowledged that criminals had misused the platform and vowed in a Telegram post to “significantly improve the situation in this regard.” Durov’s statement marked a significant policy shift: He said Telegram would now share the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who violate the platform’s rules with authorities “in response to valid legal requests.”

It was the second time in as many weeks that extremists had called on their brethren to abandon Telegram. The initial wave of panic came after the Justice Department indicted two alleged leaders of the Terrorgram Collective, a white supremacist group accused of inciting others on the platform to commit racist killings.

“EVERYONE LEAVE THE CHAT,” wrote an administrator of a group chat associated with Terrorgram Collective on the day the indictments were announced.

But despite the early panic, ProPublica and FRONTLINE’s analysis shows that users didn’t initially abandon the platform. Instead, there was a surge in activity on Terrorgram-related channels and chats as the group’s allies tried to rally support for their comrades in custody, protested government actions, and sought to remove users they believed to be federal agents.

US federal prosecutors have charged Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison, two alleged leaders of the Terrorgram collective, with a range of crimes, including inciting the murder of government officials via Telegram.

Humber has pleaded not guilty. On Sept. 13, she appeared briefly in federal court in Sacramento, California, where she was denied bail. Humber, shackled and dressed in an orange and white prison uniform, said nothing. Allison, who has not yet pleaded guilty, was arrested in Idaho but will face trial in California.

Attorneys for Humber and Allison did not respond to separate requests for comment.

According to the indictment, both are alleged accelerationists, a group of white supremacists whose goal is to hasten the collapse of today’s liberal democracies and replace them with all-white ethnic states.

Read more: App Accelerators: How Telegram Became a ‘Center of Gravity’ for a New Generation of Domestic Terrorists

Through a network of affiliated Telegram channels, the group distributes books, audio recordings, videos, posters, and calendars commemorating white supremacist mass murderers such as Brenton Tarrant, who in early 2019 stormed two New Zealand mosques and shot dead 51 Muslim worshippers.

The group clearly aims to inspire similar attacks by offering potential terrorists guidance and tools to carry out spectacular acts of violence and sabotage. For example, a now-defunct channel allegedly run by Humber included instructions on how to make a wide range of powerful explosives. After the arrests, the channels allegedly run by Humber and Allison went silent.

However, within days of the allegations being made, an anonymous Telegram user started a new channel “dedicated to updates on his situation.”

“I understand that some people may not like these two individuals, but their arrests and potential prosecution concern us all,” the user wrote. The criminal case, he argued, “shows us that Telegram is under attack globally.”

The channel referenced Humber and Allison, using their alleged Telegram usernames: Ryder_Returns and Btc.

The long-running neo-Nazi channel, which has more than 13,000 subscribers, posted a lengthy tirade. “We are deeply saddened to hear about the blatant abuse of government power in these arrests,” the post said, using coded language to suggest that white supremacists should forcibly overthrow the U.S. government.

One group closely associated with the Terrorgram Collective warned like-minded followers that federal agents might be lurking. In a post, they said they had been in contact with Humber since her arrest and that she had given them information about an undercover FBI agent who had infiltrated the Accelerationist scene.

“If this person is in your chats, delete them,” one post read, referring to the alleged agent. “Don’t threaten them. Don’t say anything to them. Just delete them from your contacts and chats.”

Matthew Kriner, managing director of the Accelerationism Research Consortium, said the Terrorgram Collective had already been severely weakened by a series of arrests in the U.S., Europe and Canada over the past two years. “Overall, the arrests of Humber and Allison are probably the final blow to the Terrorgram Collective,” Kriner said.

In the U.S., federal agents have arrested at least two people this year who they say were inspired by the group. The first was Alexander Lightner, a 26-year-old construction worker who was detained in January during a raid on his Florida home. In a series of Telegram posts, Lightner said he planned to carry out a mass killing that was racially or ethnically motivated, according to prosecutors. Court documents show agents found a manual published by the Terrorgram Collective and a copy of “Mein Kampf” in Lightner’s home.

Lightner has pleaded not guilty to charges of making online threats and possessing an illegal handgun silencer. His attorney declined to comment.

This summer, prosecutors charged Andrew Takhistov of New Jersey with soliciting a unit to destroy the power plant. Takhistov allegedly provided a PDF copy of another Terrorgram publication to an undercover agent. The 261-page manual provides detailed instructions on how to build explosives and encourages readers to destabilize society through murder and industrial sabotage. Takhistov has not yet pleaded guilty. His lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

Durov’s arrest in August also sent a shiver of fear through the extremist scene. “It’s over,” declared one white supremacist chat user.

“Does this mean I have to delete my Telegram account?” asked another group member. “I just logged in.”

Their concerns grew when Telegram removed a provision from its FAQ page stating that the company would not comply with law enforcement requests regarding users in Telegram’s private chats.

Concerned accelerators on Telegram discussed the feasibility of finding another online haven. Some considered the messaging service Signal, but others warned that it was likely controlled by U.S. intelligence agencies. One post suggested users migrate to lesser-known encrypted messaging apps like Briar and Session.

There has been more talk in extremist circles about fleeing Telegram following Durov’s announcement this week. “Time is running out for this sinking ship,” one user wrote. “So we’re abandoning Telegram?” asked another.

“Every time we have success against one of them, they learn, they adapt, they change,” said Don Robinson, who as an FBI agent conducted infiltration operations against white supremacists. “The extremists can simply pick up and move to a new platform when they get deplatformed for content abuse. That leaves law enforcement and intelligence agencies with an endless game of Whac-a-Mole to identify where the next threat might come from.”

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