The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has issued a warning regarding certain groups originating from the “White Tiger” online network. According to reporting by the magazine “Spiegel”, a radical stream has emerged from the so-called “Com” and “764” scenes-which included the now-arrested Hamburger Shahriar J.-over the past few years. This stream is characterized by members committing arson attacks and randomly attacking passersby, a phenomenon experts describe as “nihilistic violent extremism”.
Members of these underground scenes communicate and organize themselves within chat groups on Telegram. They record their acts of violence and subsequently share these videos within the groups. “Spiegel” reports that German authorities have launched investigations into at least four members associated with this scene over the last two and a half months. One of those arrested stated in his chat group, “We formed this group to bring terror into daily life”.
In addition, Western security agencies are currently examining whether Russia might leverage a channel within this violent subculture to recruit teenagers for attacks. While the BfV did not comment specifically on the Com groups when approached by “Spiegel”, the agency confirmed it is “continuously monitoring the instrumentalization of such groups by Russian state actors”.
The Federal Office fundamentally stated that these online groups constitute part of a subculture that merges a violent, anti-human, and nihilistic worldview with references to far-right extremism. Overall, the network presents a “high potential for danger”.
Thilo Manemann, an extremism expert from the analysis organization Cemas, noted that “the highest goal of the members of this scene is for an act to be particularly cruel and destructive”. According to Cemas’s recent report, “Violence Escalation as System: Nihilistic Violent Extremism in Germany” the unifying element within these chat groups is “extreme violence, used to gain recognition within the scene”.
