ADL launches research, resource hub for online pathways to youth violence, extremism

SEPTEMBER 23, 2026 14:03The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Center on Extremism launched a new research and resource hub examining online communities that influence young people to engage in targeted and mass violence on Wednesday.The initiative focuses on digital spaces that glorify mass shooters and killers, which the ADL claims contribute to the normalization and desensitization of violent content.According to the ADL, these spaces include gore forums, sextortion networks, and self-harm groups such as the transnational network known as "The Com" and its prominent sub-group 764.The ADL explains that The Com operates across four primary spheres, encompassing Extortion Com focused on sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse material, Anti-Extortion Com, Offline Com focused on physical attacks like stabbings and arson, and Cyber Com specializing in hacking and swatting.The organization claims that these networks operate as pipelines that turn vulnerable youth into victims, perpetrators, or both through a subculture called the True Crime Community (TCC), which is built around a fascination with violent criminals.In this photo illustration, a hacker with an Anonymous mask on his face and a hood on his head uses a computer on December 27, 2019 in Paris, France. (credit: Chesnot/Getty Images)"These online communities are hateful, violent, and dangerous pipelines that reward cruelty with status and turn vulnerable children and young adults into either victims or perpetrators, and sometimes both," said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL Chief Executive Officer and National Director.ADL hub provides TCC attack map, online slang guideThe ADL stated that it had been tracking and analyzing online propaganda, digital footprints, visual aesthetics, and real-world incidents connected to these networks since 2024. The hub features interactive tools such as a global TCC attacks map, a memetic violence field guide decoding online slang and symbols, and behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM) guidance for parents, educators, and law enforcement. BTAM is presented as an early intervention framework designed to help schools, workplaces, and professionals distinguish between individuals who merely make angry statements and those who genuinely pose a threat by exhibiting recognizable warning signs like grievance, ideation, planning, and preparation.Through its monitoring efforts, the ADL Center on Extremism reported contributing to at least 16 arrests globally since 2024 by flagging potential threats to law enforcement.In its findings, the ADL reported that antisemitism is deeply embedded in the culture of The Com and 764. The organization claimed that anti-Jewish hate manifests through online propaganda, screen names, swatting campaigns against Jewish institutions, and physical violence, all utilized by members seeking status and notoriety within the network.Examples cited by the ADL include a 764 member who livestreamed the fatal stabbing of an elderly woman he suspected of having Jewish or Roma ancestry, groups claiming credit for swatting hoaxes at synagogues in Florida, and abusers coercing victims into carving swastikas into their skin or writing antisemitic messages in blood.The ADL's research details how these digital networks operate across popular platforms such as Discord, TikTok, Roblox, and Telegram, utilizing a social hierarchy where actors compete for notoriety through increasingly extreme acts. Within these spaces, abusers employ tactics such as compiling "lorebooks" containing compromising personal data to blackmail victims, alongside forcing targets to create "cut signs" by carving names into their skin or "blood walls" to demonstrate submission.Online ecosystems lead to footage of mass shootings, terror propagandaFurthermore, the report connects these ecosystems to gore forums like WatchPeopleDie (WPD), a site with over 5.5 million registered users that is part of the Marsey Network and serves as a hosting ground for mass shooting footage, terrorist propaganda, and gamified features like the "Marseypass.""The online spaces that promote hate and glorify violence do not stay online; they fuel and animate acts of violence, posing one of the greatest threats we face to children, targeted communities, and our society as a whole," said Oren Segal, ADL Senior Vice President for counter-extremism and intelligence.To address these threats, the ADL outlined several recommendations. The organization called on federal and state lawmakers to expand investments in community-based violence prevention programs, increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, and pass legislation holding technology platforms accountable for the spread of extremist content through improved transparency and cross-platform reporting safeguards.Additionally, the organization plans to share its findings with state attorneys general and district attorneys to encourage the enforcement of relevant laws.Follow us on Google