One such group is Terrorgram Collective, whose past leader, Dallas Humber, former leader of the white supremacist transnational terrorist group Terrorgram Collective, was sentenced last week to 30 years in Federal Prison for “soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials, and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. She and another former leader, Matthew Allison from Boise, Idaho, were charged with a 15 count indictment in September of last year.
“From the comfort of her suburban (Elk Grove) California home, Humber used online platforms to celebrate violence and solicit attacks that took the lives of innocent people and injured others around the world. Her incarceration makes the world a safer place,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “The Department of Justice has shown that it can and will find these criminals even in the darkest corners of the Internet.”
Terrorgram initially started as an off branch from the neo-Nazi Iron March forum, which ran through the early to late 2010s, according to the Australian National security. When Iron March shut down, users switched to the chat forum Telegram, where members spread, “propaganda including memes, neo-Nazi cultural references, sharing of previous NRVE (Nationalist and Racist Violent Extremist organizations) offenders’ manifestos, and polished graphic design motifs in its publications.” The group also advocated for violence to start a race war, taught followers how to conduct a terrorist attack, and amplified terrorist attacks, such as the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand.
According to the U.S. Department of State, Terrogram was the facilitator of several terrorist attacks and planned terrorist attacks across the world. One attack was an October 2022 shooting outside an LGBTQI+ bar in Slovakia. In this attack, 19-year-old Juraj Krajčík shot two customers who were sitting at a table outside the bar, then sent two tweets saying, “#hatecrime #gaybar #bratislava” and “#bratislava feeling no regrets, isn’t that funny?”, according to The Guardian. Before committing suicide, Krajčík allegedly sent his manifesto to Allison.
In another attack, 18-year-old Arda K filmed a livestream of himself stabbing five people at a tea garden near a Mosque the victims had been praying at in Turkey. At the time of his arrest, Arda was wearing, “a vest which bears a black sun symbol associated with neo-Nazis, as well as a helmet, a balaclava with a skull printed on it and camo trousers,” according to the BBC. There was also a planned attack in New Jersey that never took place.
Humber and Allison both became members of Terrorgram in 2019 and then became leaders in 2022 after another leader was arrested. Her other duties included narrating the propaganda video “White Terror” and audiobook versions of manifestos written by other terrorists. Humber and Allison were also in close contact with Brandon Russell, founder of the right-wing terrorist group National Socialist Order. Together, Humber and Allison helped send out Russell’s Digital magazine “The Hard Reset”, a 256 page manifesto that “glorifies violence, explicitly encourages lone-actor terrorist acts and provides detailed instructions for carrying out various forms of terrorist attacks and civil disobedience designed to target minority groups.”
“With today’s sentencing, Dallas Humber will pay the price for encouraging racially motivated violence, attacks on critical infrastructure, and the murder of federal officials,” said Assistant Director Donald Holstead of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. “Humber led the Terrorgram Collective which inspired and guided individuals to commit violent acts around the world. Keeping our communities safe is a top priority of the FBI. Let there be no doubt, we will remain steadfast in identifying and holding accountable those who commit or encourage terrorism and other heinous acts.”
