2 charged in conspiracy to incite attacks on minorities via Telegram – NBC New York

Two people who prosecutors say were motivated by white supremacist ideology have been arrested on charges of using the social messaging app Telegram to encourage hate crimes and acts of violence against minorities, government officials and key infrastructure in the United States, the Justice Department said Monday.

The defendants, identified as Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison, face 15 federal charges in the Eastern District of California, including inciting hate crimes and murder of federal officers, disseminating bomb-making instructions and conspiring to provide material support for terrorists.

Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, and Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho, were arrested Friday. It was not immediately clear if either had an attorney who could speak on their behalf.

The indictment accuses them of operating Terrorgram, a network of channels and group chats on Telegram, and urging followers to attack perceived enemies of white people, including government buildings and energy facilities, as well as “valuable” targets such as politicians.

“Today’s actions make clear that the department will hold perpetrators accountable, including those who hide behind computer screens, attempting to perpetrate bias-motivated violence,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, the Justice Department’s top civil rights official, said at a news conference.

Their calls for violence included statements such as “Take action now” and “Do your part,” and users who engaged in acts intended to promote white supremacy were told they could become known as “saints,” prosecutors said.

Justice Department officials say the pair used the app to send bomb-making instructions and circulate a list of potential targets — including a federal judge, a senator and a former U.S. attorney — and to celebrate the actions or plots of active Terrorgram users.

They include the stabbing of five people last month outside a mosque in Turkey and the July arrest of an 18-year-old accused of planning to attack an electrical substation to promote white supremacist views. In the Turkey attack, for example, prosecutors say the perpetrator posted in a group chat the morning of the stabbing: “Come see how many people I can cleanse.”

According to the indictment, the 24-minute documentary “White Terror,” which the two produced, documented and glorified approximately 105 acts of white supremacist violence between 1968 and 2021.

“The risk and the danger they pose are incredibly serious,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department’s top national security official. “Their reach extends all the way to the Internet because of the platform they’ve created.”

Telegram is a messaging app that allows for one-on-one conversations, group chats, and large channels that allow people to send messages to subscribers. Although Telegram is widely used as a messaging tool around the world, it has also attracted scrutiny, including findings by French investigators that the app was being used by Islamic extremists and drug dealers.

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was detained by French authorities last month on charges of enabling criminal use of the platform. Durov responded to the allegations in a post last week in which he said he should not be the target of personal attacks and vowed to step up efforts to combat crime on the app.

He wrote that while Telegram is not “some anarchist paradise,” its growing user base “has created problems that have made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.”