Boise, Idaho. A town that could’ve been plucked from a brochure selling the past - old-fashioned, sunlit, indulgent. Everyone knows each other, everyone smiles, everyone drinks the same cheap beer in the same smoky clubs where the future still sounds like ‘90s drum’n’bass. Amid this backdrop stood Matthew Allison at the turntables - gentle, soft-spoken, the kind who listens more than he talks. He was gay, had a long-term partner, lived vegan, avoided honey for ethical reasons, and at night, he was one of the most dangerous digital fascists of our time.
Allison wasn’t just a DJ and bagel baker. He was BTC - “BanThisChannel” - a name that became a calling card in the darker corners of Telegram. What he created there wasn’t art, it was the digitization of terror. Over 120 videos, carefully edited, set to music, often in black and white, showcasing mass shooters, explaining methods of killing, walking viewers through bomb construction step by step. He glorified Brenton Tarrant, spoke of holy warriors, celebrated the murder of Jews, Black people, women, trans people. The central message, projected again and again: “Voting will not remove them. They want you dead.”
No one had guessed that the man hunched over records on Saturday nights, who listened to cable radio in his free time, was curating a network of more than 20 channels and 120 groups - a pulsating ecosystem of radicalization that had long since gone international. His videos appeared in forums, on servers in Eastern Europe, in networks that inspired real-world attackers. The Bratislava shooter had been in contact with Allison. An 18-year-old in New Jersey used his guides to plan an attack on a power grid. Allison wasn’t fringe. He was a node. And no one saw him coming.
When the handcuffs clicked, in September 2024, investigators found cable ties, ammunition, an assault rifle, and a skull-print balaclava in his backpack - the symbol of the Atomwaffen Division. In his apartment: hitlists, sketches of child murder, rape fantasies, bomb blueprints. On a USB stick: death in HD. His defense claimed it was all just old death metal lyrics, artistic provocation. But reality had long since become too concrete. Far too concrete. Investigators across three countries compiled material linking Allison directly to more than 30 attempted attacks. Terror had a face. And it wore headphones.
He was broken, friends say. A man carrying a contradiction inside himself - one that turned deadly. Openly gay, yet fanatically hateful toward all things queer. A former friend, Tyler Whitt, later said: “He couldn’t live with who he was. So he chose hate. It was like a vow against himself.” His father, an elderly man in Missouri, didn’t understand. “He was my perfect son. A prodigy. I don’t know what happened.”
But what happened to Matthew Allison wasn’t an exception. It was a mutation. A disease that grows when no one’s watching. The network he helped shape doesn’t call itself Terrorgram. It’s no club, no initiative. It’s a loose, dark current. A tangle of channels, symbols, links - all coded, all accessible. And in Germany, that current has already taken root. Since 2019, Telegram channels like “White Awakening” or “Feuersturm 88” have spread the aesthetic of digital fascism. They glorify Anders Breivik, celebrate weapons, explain how to build explosives. They call for war. And they mean it.
In Mainz, a 20-year-old planned mosque attacks. In Saxony-Anhalt, a teenager was found with ties to Atomwaffen Division. A Bundeswehr reservist shared bomb-making instructions. The trails lead - not occasionally, but repeatedly - into the political perimeter of the AfD. Marcel Grauf, who worked for years in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament for the party, was active in groups where Terrorgram content circulated. In 2024, the Saxony-Anhalt state branch was explicitly mentioned in a report by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency for personnel overlaps with right-wing terror-affiliated groups. No names were given—but the reference was clear.
Multiple party members share antisemitic codes in private chats, use language lifted from the “Siege” milieu, borrow from the visuals of Atomwaffen Division and the Order of Nine Angles. In Thuringia, an internal paper is circulating that describes “remigration” as both “voluntary” and “necessary” - language previously found only in Terrorgram’s channels. The far-right wing of the AfD, officially disbanded, lives on in digital networks. The line between ultranationalist populism and overt terrorism is blurring. Democracy is becoming a backdrop. Behind it, poison grows.
“Blood & Honour,” the neo-Nazi organization banned in Germany since 2000, has long since returned - digitally. Their music circulates via Telegram, their codes appear in videos, their history is glorified. Peter F., a former member of Combat 18, poses with Terrorgram insignia; the camera rolls, Telegram uploads, the algorithm spreads.
The case of the Saxon separatists is particularly disturbing. Under the name “Free State of the White East,” a group has formed since 2022, aiming to secede from Germany and establish an “Aryan state.” They published their own constitution, glorified senior Nazi figures, and saw state collapse as a historical necessity. Jörg S., the suspected ringleader, met with Austrian neo-Nazi Gottfried Küssel in Vienna. In November 2024, searches in Germany, Poland, and Austria uncovered paramilitary equipment, territorial conquest plans, and ties to security authorities. Eight people were arrested. The investigation is ongoing.
What unites all these groups is their focus on youth. They speak the language of memes, use gaming platforms, lure through irony. The entry point is harmless. The radicalization fatal. Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office warns of stochastic terrorism - the intentional creation of an environment in which someone, somewhere, someday, will take up arms.
Telegram deletes. And lets new ones spawn. The platform is part of the problem. The Matthew Allison case is symbol and warning. A man who loved music and spread hate. An artist who made himself into a tool of terror. His case will be tried in court. His defense appeals to freedom of speech. But reality no longer asks about art.
It asks: How many more bombs must explode before words count as deeds?
To be continued…
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