WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. on Monday imposed sanctions on an extreme right-wing online network, designating the “Terrorgram” collective a terrorist group and accusing it of promoting violent white supremacy.
The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it had designated the group, which primarily operates on the Telegram social media site, and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
The State Department said the group has motivated and facilitated attacks and attempted attacks by users, including a 2022 shooting outside an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia, a planned attack in 2024 on energy facilities in New Jersey and an August knife attack at a mosque in Turkey.
“The group promotes violent white supremacism, solicits attacks on perceived adversaries, and provides guidance and instructional materials on tactics, methods, and targets for attacks, including on critical infrastructure and government officials,” the State Department said.
The action freezes any of the group’s U.S. assets and bars Americans from dealing with it.
The leaders targeted on Monday with sanctions were based in Brazil, Croatia and South Africa, according to the statement.
Telegram in a statement on Tuesday said: “Calls to violence have no place on Telegram’s platform. Telegram’s Moderators removed several channels that used variations of the ‘Terrorgram’ name when they were discovered years ago. Similar content is banned whenever it appears.”
In September, U.S. prosecutors unveiled criminal charges against two alleged leaders of “Terrorgram”, saying they used Telegram to solicit attacks on Black, Jewish, LGBTQ people and immigrants with the aim of inciting a race war.
Britain in April said it would proscribe the Terrorgram collective as a terrorist organization, meaning it would become a criminal offense in the country to belong to or promote the group.
U.S. President Joe Biden has railed against white supremacy while in office.
In 2021, Biden launched the first-ever U.S. National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, which included resources to identify and prosecute threats and new deterrents to prevent Americans from joining dangerous groups.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Katharine Jackson; writing by Susan Heavey; editing by Paul Simao and Chizu Nomiyama)
