FRONTLINE, ProPublica Investigate ‘The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram,’ Continuing Years of Groundbreaking Reporting on Violent Extremism and Online Radicalization

The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram

March 25, 2025 7/6c: pbs.org/frontline, PBS App 10/9c: PBS stations (check local listings), ProPublica.org, YouTube & the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel www.facebook.com/frontline | X: @frontlinepbs Instagram: @frontlinepbs | YouTube: youtube.com/frontline

In September 2024, the federal government charged two Americans with a slew of felonies, including soliciting the murder of government officials on the messaging app Telegram. As a new investigative collaboration from FRONTLINE and ProPublica explores, those Americans, Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison, were two alleged leaders of the Terrorgram Collective — a transnational online network of extremists accused of inciting acts of white supremacist terrorism.

How did Terrorgram grow and operate — and what does the collective’s rise and fall tell us about the evolution of far-right extremism on loosely-moderated tech platforms in a rapidly changing digital age?

From an award-winning team led by reporters A.C. Thompson and James Bandler and acclaimed filmmakers Thomas Jennings and Annie Wong, The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram premieres Tuesday, March 25, 2025, on PBS and online. More than a year in the making, the 90-minute documentary is part of a collaborative, multi-platform effort that also will include text stories from ProPublica co-published on FRONTLINE’s website in the runup to the premiere.

“Drawing on a trove of archived posts, our reporting shows how Telegram and other lightly regulated platforms became a gathering place for ‘militant accelerationists’ — neo-Nazis who want to use terror and violence to bring down governments and create new, white ethnostates,” says Thompson, who has been reporting on the evolution of violent extremism in the U.S. for years and, with this project, expands his focus worldwide.

“These people on the messaging and social media app Telegram were trying to stir other people to commit acts of incredible violence and to spark a race war,” says Bandler. “What we’ve seen through the Terrorgram story is that there are consequences to unfettered free speech, to having influencers out there advocating violence or mass murder.”

With never-before-published details, the documentary and related stories trace how various loosely-moderated platforms have become havens for extremist ideas and for radicalization, from 4Chan to 8Chan to eventually Telegram. The investigation shows how a number of attackers around the world, from Bratislava to New Zealand to California, used these various platforms and were encouraged by them.

The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram also probes how authorities in several countries would eventually arrest around a dozen people allegedly tied to the Terrorgram Collective — including Humber and Allison, who have pleaded not guilty. Separately, French authorities last year arrested the CEO of Telegram for allegedly failing to stop illegal activity on the platform, charges he called misguided for trying to hold a CEO personally responsible for crimes committed by a third party. The company says it has always screened postings for problematic content and that “calls for violence from any group are not tolerated.”

“Are these arrests the end of Terrorgram? You may have a collapse specifically of this particular network, but is that the end? Absolutely not,” sociologist Pete Simi says in the documentary. “There will be new Terrorgrams that take its place by another name, and we will continue to see this kind of extremism propagated through platforms of various sorts, not just Telegram.”

The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram investigation continues years of groundbreaking reporting on violent extremism and online radicalization from ProPublica and FRONTLINE. Thompson’s past work with FRONTLINE and ProPublica includes the duPont-Columbia and Emmy Award-winning Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, which investigated the white supremacists and neo-Nazis involved in the deadly 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, rally; Documenting Hate: New American Nazis, which investigated a violent neo-Nazi group that has actively recruited inside the U.S. military; and the George Polk Award-winning documentary American Insurrection, which offered an in-depth look at how far-right extremist groups have evolved from the deadly 2017 Charlottesville rally to the assault on the U.S. Capitol. Veteran FRONTLINE filmmakers Jennings and Wong’s Emmy nominated documentary, The Discord Leaks, with The Washington Post, investigated the online world of Discord leaker Jack Texeira, who had a history of violent threats, racism, and conspiracy theories. Jennings also directed American Terrorist and A Perfect Terrorist, FRONTLINE’s documentaries on American-born terrorist David Coleman Headley, who helped plan the deadly 2008 siege on Mumbai.

The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram will be available to watch at pbs.org/frontline and in the PBS App starting March 25, 2025, at 7/6c. It will premiere on PBS stations (check local listings), at propublica.org and on FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel that night at 10/9c and will also be available on the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel. Subscribe to FRONTLINE’s newsletter to get updates on events, podcast episodes and more related to The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram.

Credits The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram is a FRONTLINE production with 2over10 Media in association with ProPublica. The directors are Thomas Jennings and Annie Wong. The producers are Annie Wong, Thomas Jennings and A.C. Thompson. The writers are Thomas Jennings & A.C. Thompson. The co-producers are Karina Meier and Fanny Lee. The correspondents are A.C. Thompson and James Bandler. The senior producer is Dan Edge. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

About FRONTLINE FRONTLINE, U.S. television’s longest running investigative documentary series, explores the issues of our times through powerful storytelling. FRONTLINE has won an Academy Award® as well as every major journalism and broadcasting award, including 108 Emmy Awards and 34 Peabody Awards. Visit pbs.org/frontline and follow us on X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to learn more. FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.

About ProPublica ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. With a team of more than 150 dedicated journalists, ProPublica covers a range of topics, focusing on stories with the potential to spur real-world impact. Its reporting has contributed to the passage of new laws; reversals of harmful policies and practices; and accountability for leaders at local, state and national levels. Since it began publishing in 2008, ProPublica has received seven Pulitzer Prizes, five Peabody Awards, eight Emmy Awards and 16 George Polk Awards.

Press Contacts: FRONTLINE | Anne Husted, Associate Director of Publicity, Communications and Awards | frontlinemedia@wgbh.org | 617.300.5312

ProPublica | Alexis Stephens, Director of Communications media@propublica.org | 267.872.3924