Neo-Nazis Are Running Out of Places to Hide Online

In March 2019, amid the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre, the far right made a collective migration from an array of messenger platforms and discussion boards to the messaging app Telegram. On their new home—the same one ISIS adopted as its digital headquarters in 2015—neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups steadily grew their audiences by the thousands. The Russian-founded, UK-based Telegram connected different far-right communities, helping to bring far more organization to the movement as a whole.

Despite repeated reporting about this trend, neo-Nazis on Telegram called for attacks on Jews, law enforcement, and minorities, and gave instructions how to do so, with no substantial counteraction. Far-right terrorist channels and groups—which they self-declare as “Terrorgram”—got to act like ISIS but saw none of the same consequences.

WIRED OPINION ABOUT Rita Katz (@Rita_Katz) is the executive director and founder of the SITE Intelligence Group, the world’s leading nongovernmental counterterrorism organization specializing in tracking and analyzing the online activity of the global extremist community.

But amid emerging stories of neo-Nazi National Guard and Army personnel networking and plotting attacks on Telegram, the company is now taking thorough action against some of the most prominent and violence-promoting entities on its platform.

Among the first hit was Terrorwave Refined. The group maintains ties to organizations like Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi paramilitary group, and Atomwaffen Division, a US-based neo-Nazi paramilitary group that is now largely defunct. Terrorwave was in many ways the central hub of the far right. It had all the invite links to other far-right Telegram channels and gave giant subscriber boosts to the channels it promoted. Its subscribers had doubled from 3,000 in December to nearly 6,000 by late June.

At that time, Telegram deleted not just Terrorwave’s main channel but also the backups it had created for sporadic removals. The platform also booted others, including Misanthropic Division, the militant wing of the Azov Battalion, and RapeKrieg, a vile Satanist neo-Nazi group.

It was the first shockwave sent through the far right, and the community started sounding the alarm that Telegram was “cracking down” on them. One message distributed across the community was accompanied by a screenshot compilation of channels that had already been removed, warning:

“… 10 channels deleted without warning, no restrictions, nothing; just straight out deleted ... Additionally the channel owners for some of them have been perma-banned from making channels or messaging in groups.” Posts included lists and images of the deleted channels.

Rapekrieg administrators likewise published a message across Telegram, announcing that “RAPEKRIEG OFFICIAL was deleted by telegram without warning, accelerating our plans on rebranding for a new era of pro-White organization and communication.”

With the panic came signals of desperation. Breaking precedent, the administrator of Terrorwave Refined began begging others for help, going as far as offering Bitcoin payments to anyone who could find a way to bring the channel and its followers back intact:

“As you all know by now, Terrorwave Refined/Revived have been taken down by Telegram … I've come here today to offer BTC or any other preferred crypto to anyone who can return my full channel to me … Inquire in English, French, or Russian.”