Australia officially lists Terrorgram as a terrorist organisation
Australia has formally listed a network of neo-Nazi groups as a terrorist organisation months after targeting it with sweeping sanctions.
Terrorgram is a collective that advocates for white supremacist violence on encrypted social media platforms, such as Telegram.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Friday likened it to a 'giant chat group dedicated to evil' and said it has 'been a direct threat to Australians'.
He added that there 'has been one attack in particular that was directly part of this network that took place'.
'This is very different to a lot of the listings that people would have heard about in the past,' Mr Burke told the ABC.
'When people think about a terrorist group organising, normally you imagine people in small groups, meeting in private homes or something and gradually recruiting people to their cause before they organise something.
'This is more like a giant chat group dedicated to evil to hatred and to violence.'
He said many of the 'members would not know each other, would never meet each other'.
'And the attacks when they occur are very much lone wolf attacks,' Mr Burke said.
'It's a form of far right extremism – we're talking about white supremicism, we're talking about homophobic violence, and we're talking about the sort of organisation that describes the Christchurch killer as a 'saint'.
'This is a really bad organisation and a different sort of organisation to what we've listed before.'
We have officially listed Terrorgram as a terrorist organisation under the Criminal Code Act 1995 (the Criminal Code). pic.twitter.com/Vcha07WzX8
— Tony Burke (@Tony_Burke) June 26, 2025
Anyone found guilty of being involved with Terrorgram could face up to 25 years behind bars.
The move came amid a surge far right extremism, highlighted by rising antisemitism following the October 7 attacks in Israel in 2023.
Australia's domestic intelligence agency last year raised the terror threat to 'probably' because of deteriorating social cohesion and a spike in radicalisation among young men.
The agency's chief, Mike Burgess, warned at the time people were becoming radicalised for increasingly complicated and varied reasons and that ideologies were blending.
It was the first hike in a decade.
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