This story was originally published byProPublica.
She and her comrades called this constellation of interlocking Telegram accounts Terrorgram.
Their shared goal was to topple modern democracies through terrorism and sabotage and then replace them with all-white ethno-states.
© Getty
Humber quickly turned Palmeters slur-riddled manifesto into an audiobook that she narrated in a monotone.
The Terrorgram story is part of a much larger 21st century phenomenon.
The ability to connect with like-minded strangers helped fuel uprisings like the Arab Spring and Irans pro-democracy movements.
They could send encrypted direct messages, start big chat groups and create public channels to broadcast their messages.
Humber went by a series of usernames but was eventually publicly exposed by a group of California activists.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
Telegram was created in 2013 by Pavel Durov, a Russian-born technologist, and his brother Nikolai.
Telegrams largely hands-off approach allowed Humber and her alleged confederates to reach an international audience of disaffected young people.
They encouraged these followers to turn their violent thoughts into action.
And some of them did.
ProPublica and FRONTLINE identified 35 crimes linked to Terrorgram, including bomb plots, stabbings and shootings.
Radka Troksiarova survived the Bratislava attack after being shot twice in the leg.
Sometimes I catch myself wishing to be able to ask the gunman: Why did you do it?
What was the point and purpose of destroying so many lives?
Right-wing extremists were flocking to Telegram by 2019.
Users there openly discussed moving to Telegram.
Among those who joined the online migration were Pavol Benadik and Matthew Althorpe.
Militant accelerationists want to speed the collapse of society by committing destabilizing terrorist attacks and mass killings.
Telegram gave them the ability to share tactics and targets with thousands of potential terrorists around the globe.
Hed spent time on Facebook, Twitter, Discord, Gab and 4chan, another low-moderation message board.
Althorpe started a channel and uploaded a steady stream of violent propaganda, the Telegram chat logs show.
He named his channel Terrorwave Refined.
But on Telegram, the posts stayed up.
Soon others were creating similar content.
In the summer of 2019, the duo began circulating online flyers listing allied Telegram chat groups and channels.
Early on the data pipe was small, just seven accounts.
Benadik and Althorpe began calling this new community Terrorgram.
I saw a niche and I decided to fill it.
They were becoming influencers.
Tarrants slaughter had sent a surge of fear through New Zealand society.
And his written and visual propaganda, which was aimed at inspiring more violence, had spread widely.
Within the Terrorgram community, Tarrant became an icon.
The two men saw Tarrants crime as a template for future attacks.
For extremism researchers, the rise of the Terrorgram community was alarming.
The investigator said he was unable to even reach anyone at Telegram at the time to discuss the matter.
By August 2019, the Terrorgram connection had grown to nearly 20 chat groups and channels.
Thanks to everyone who helped us hit 2,000!
wrote Althorpe in a post.
Weiners unit spent years monitoring the Terrorgram scene and assisted the FBI in investigating cases linked to the community.
When compared to mainstream social media, the numbers were tiny.
Feds deserve to be shot.
They are the enemy, he wrote in one chat thread.
Got a liberal texas mayor in my sights!
Smith was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
The Terrorgram community was becoming a significant concern for law enforcement.
Today, that five-page document which was not meant for public dissemination seems prescient.
Within seven hours, he had attracted 1,000 followers, according to a post he wrote at the time.
The Terrorgrammers saw the modest attempts at content moderation as a betrayal by Pavel Durov and Telegram.
You could do anything on 2019 Telegram, wrote Benadik in a 2021 post.
Still, the Terrorgrammers found ways to evade the blackouts and shared the work-arounds with their followers.
The online grid eventually grew to include hundreds of chats and channels.
As the content spread, so did crime.
The teen was later hailed as a saint by the Terrorgrammers.
Their small, clandestine group was the Terrorgram Collective.
Over 14 months, the group generated three books and repeatedly posted them in PDF form on Terrorgram accounts.
She added that the books are filled with splashy graphics designed to appeal to young people.
A guide for killing people.
Each entry included a photo of the target and their home address.
The collectives books influenced a new generation of armed extremists, some of them in their teens.
One of these young disciples was Juraj Krajcik.
The Slovakian student had joined Benadiks chat groups at the age of 16 and had become a frequent poster.
I was in terrible pain because the bullet went through my thighbone, she recalled.
I am still in pain.
Six thousand miles away in California, Humber promptly began making celebratory posts.
Krajcik, she exclaimed, had achieved sainthood.
The massacre, she noted, was motivated by Hatred of non-Whites.
Benadik was the first to fall.
Hed been studying computer science at the Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic.
While in jail, Benadik admitted his involvement with Terrorgram.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six years in prison shortly after the Teplaren attacks.
All the contacts was in the cyberspace, he said.
This was the only communication, said Daniel Lipsic, the prosecutor who investigated the Teplaren attack.
In fact, Benadik and Krajcik had many conversations, the logs obtained by ProPublica and FRONTLINE show.
Krajcik posted frequently about his animus toward gays and lesbians, which Benadik encouraged.
Alleged Terrorgram Collective co-founder Althorpe is also in custody.
He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
Prosecutors say the two have been involved with the Terrorgram community since 2019.
Looking pale and grim, Humber declined to be interviewed when ProPublica and FRONTLINE visited the Sacramento County Jail.
Her attorney declined to comment on the case.
The group has been majorly impacted in terms of its activity.
The organizational capabilities of the Terrorgram Collective itself have been severely undermined.
In a statement, the company said, Mr. Durov firmly denies all allegations.
The company said it has always complied with the European Unions laws.
Still, after the arrest, the company announced a slew of reforms designed to make Telegram safer.
In response, white supremacists began to flee the platform.
Especially given the broader climate that exists within our society, Simi said.
Today, many extremists are gathering on X, where owner Elon Musk has loosened content restrictions.
White supremacists frequently post a popular Terrorgram slogan about killing all Black people.
The news organizations reached out to X multiple times but got no response.
The clip shows one of his victims lying dead on the pavement.
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