Alleged white supremacists used Telegram to encourage attacks on minority groups, prosecutors claim

Two alleged white supremacist leaders aimed to use Telegram to incite a race war by planning attacks on various minority groups and officials, prosecutors have claimed.

If found guilty, Dallas Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, in California, and 37-year-old Matthew Allison, from Boise, Idaho, could be jailed more than 200 years. They are facing 15 federal charges, including soliciting hate crimes, soliciting the murder of federal officials and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

The pair are allegedly leading members of The Terrorgram Collective, which was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government in April, making membership of the group in Britain a criminal offence, with a potential prison sentence of 14 years.

The group promotes “white supremacist accelerationism”, an ideology which the US Department of Justice defines as focused on the belief that the white race is superior, that society is irreparably corrupt and cannot be saved by political action, and that violence and terrorism are necessary to ignite a race war and accelerate the collapse of the government and the rise of a white ethno-state.

According to the indictment, Humber and Allison joined the group in 2019 and became leaders in 2022, after the previous leader was arrested on terrorism charges.

Prosecutors said that the pair used Telegram to share advice on how to carry out crimes, celebrated white supremacist attacks and provided a hit list of “high-value targets” – deemed enemies of the white race – for assassination. These included federal, state and local officials, as well as leaders of private companies and non-governmental organisations.

It is alleged that many of the targets were chosen by the group because of their race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Hate from behind a screen ‘will not protect you’

“Today’s indictment charges the defendants with leading a transnational terrorist group dedicated to attacking America’s critical infrastructure, targeting a hit list of our country’s public officials, and carrying out deadly hate crimes, all in the name of violent white supremacist ideology,” US attorney general Merrick Garland said in a statement released on the Department of Justice website on Monday (9 September).

“Today’s arrests are a warning that committing hate-fuelled crimes in the darkest corners of the internet will not hide you, and soliciting terrorist attacks from behind a screen will not protect you. The United States Department of Justice will find you, and we will hold you accountable.”

Deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco alleged that they were “a threat to public safety and the rule of law” and “advanced their heinous white supremacist ideology, solicited hate crimes, and provided guidance and instructions for terrorist attacks on critical infrastructure and assassinations of government officials”, by using Telegram.

She went on to say: “Today’s action reaffirms that the Department of Justice will not tolerate this alleged abhorrent conduct. It has no place in America or anywhere else. We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to identify, apprehend and hold accountable anyone who engages in such activity, no matter where they are located.”

FBI director Christopher Wray said such behaviour would not be tolerated.

“Terrorism is still the FBI’s number-one priority, and, working with our partners, we are committed to investigating and holding accountable those who break the laws and assist violent actors in lethal plots,” he added.