Inside a White Supremacist Network That Encouraged Members to Kill

The FRONTLINE Dispatch

GBH

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For more than a year, FRONTLINE and ProPublica have been investigating a global network of far-right extremists known as the Terrorgram Collective.

The recent documentary The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram explores how this white supremacist network grew on anonymous, loosely-moderated platforms — and the violent consequences.

Reporters A.C. Thompson and James Bandler join The FRONTLINE Dispatch to talk about the ideas and rhetoric they found inside Terrorgram, and how they uncovered connections between the group and a deadly terror attack at an LGBTQ+ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, that killed two people.

“You can find hate speech on most internet spaces,” A.C. Thompson told host Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE. “What was different about […] this Terrogram community that colonized Telegram for about five years is it wasn't just about speech. It was about actionable material.”

You can stream The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram, directed by Thomas Jennings and Annie Wong, on FRONTLINE’s website, FRONTLINE’s YouTube Channel, or the PBS App.

Transcript

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0:00.0	For more than a year, Frontline and ProPublica have been investigating a dark corner of the internet and social media.
0:09.5	This is a very militant, aggressive, dangerous community.
0:14.9	One that is given rise to a series of deadly terror attacks around the world.
0:19.6	Breaking news after reports of a shooting.
0:21.6	An anti-Muslim terror attack in New Zealand.
0:23.6	Shooting at a synagogue in Poway.
0:25.6	Moments before the mass murder in El Pascha.
0:27.6	The suspect detailed his plans and ideology.
0:30.6	20 people dead more than two dozen entered.
0:33.6	The rise and fall of terrorogram examines a white supremacist network that flourished online and its violent consequences.
0:41.3	These people on the messaging and social media app telegram were trying to stir other people to commit acts of incredible violence and to spark a race war.
0:54.9	Reporters A.C. Thompson and James Bandler joined me to talk about their investigation.
1:00.3	I'm Rainy Aronson Roth, editor-in-chief and executive producer of Frontline,
1:04.4	and this is the Frontline Dispatch.
1:22.0	The Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation, committed to excellence in journalism, and by the Frontline Journalism Fund, with major support from John and Joanne Hegler.
1:26.5	AC and James, thanks so much for joining me on the dispatch.
1:28.2	Great to be here, Rainey.
1:29.2	Thanks for having us.
1:33.3	Yeah, so together with director Tom Jennings and Annie Wong,
1:36.6	you guys have been working on this project for over a year.
1:41.5	You've been scouring online posts and traveling and talking to sources all over the world.
1:47.7	Can you share how you got started on this? Yeah. So for me, I was really interested in what online tools extremists were using today and where they were congregating,
	...

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