Australia slaps sanctions on white supremacist terrorist network Terrorgram

The Australian government announced that it has imposed sanctions on the white supremacist terrorist network Terrorgram.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong released a statement concerning the decentralised online network, which promotes white supremacy and racially motivated violence, local broadcaster SBS News reported.

It marks the first time that Canberra has imposed counter terrorism financing sanctions on an entirely online-based entity.

"It will now be a criminal offense to use or deal with the assets of, or make assets available to, Terrorgram," said Wong on Monday.

Punishments include up to 10 years in prison and heavy fines.

Wong added that the government is committed to "disrupting the activities of terrorists and violent extremists and preventing them from recruiting and radicalising people online."

Australia also re-listed four other groups that promote nationalist and racist violent extremist ideologies for counter-terrorism financing sanctions, she said in the announcement.

Terrorgram is an online network that primarily operates via the Telegram messaging app and promotes neo-fascist, white supremacist and militant accelerationist ideology.

The group pursues "the collapse of the Western world and a 'race war' through violent acts of terrorism," according to the UK Home Office.

The UK designated Terrorgram as a proscribed terrorist organisation in April 2024.

At least two attacks have been associated with Terrorgram: a live-streamed stabbing of five people by an 18-year-old man outside a mosque in Türkiye in August last year and the fatal shooting of two men at a bar in the Slovakian capital Bratislava in October 2022.

The Australian government has also imposed sanctions on Naim Qassem, the new secretary-general of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, Wong announced.

Qassem was elected as the new leader in October last year after Hezbollah’s previous leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli air strike.