163. As well as providing an ecosystem that facilitates radicalisation, the online space can result in individuals, such as Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant, assuming 'cult-like' status:
- In July 2011, Anders Breivik carried out a mass shooting against the Workers Youth League (AUF), killing 69 people, and detonated an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in central Oslo. He was convicted in 2012 of mass murder, causing a fatal explosion and terrorism.
- On 15 March 2019, Australian national Brenton Tarrant conducted a terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 and injuring 49. Tarrant live-streamed the attack on Facebook and posted links to his 'manifesto' on 8chan, an XRW-dominated site. In the first 24 hours after the attack, it is known that there were at least 1.5 million attempts to upload the video. Tarrant was inspired by ERWT international narratives, marking his weapons with the names of attackers and attacks from around the world and including references to the Finsbury Park attack in his manifesto. Although he took inspiration from multiple sources, it is highly likely that he is not a member of any ERWT group.[1]
164. In the intervening years since the attacks, Tarrant and Breivik have assumed 'cult-like' status, with aspiring Extreme Right-Wing Terrorists seeking to replicate elements of the attacks. JTAC advises that it is likely that if a UK-based individual active in the XRW online space planned to conduct an attack that received similar admiration to Tarrant's, they would aspire to conduct a high-impact attack with a high number of fatalities, or 'kill count'.[2]
Disrupting online activity: Feuerkrieg Division
165. The Feuerkrieg Division (FKD) was a predominantly online group made of international members who have coalesced in the online space.[3] ***, and the group was proscribed by the Home Secretary on 17 July 2020.
61
