LONDON (AFP): The UK government on Monday said it would outlaw the far-right Terrogram network as a terrorist organisation, making membership and support a criminal offence.
Terrorgram produces and disseminates violent propaganda on multiple platforms online. It will be the sixth extreme right-wing group and the first online terrorist network to be proscribed in the UK, putting it alongside the likes of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
A draft proscription order laid before parliament on Monday is expected to pass and come into effect from Friday, the Home Office said.
“The Terrorgram collective spreads vile propaganda and aims to radicalise young people to conduct heinous terrorist acts,” Home Secretary James Cleverly said.
“This is why we are outlawing membership or support for the group.”
Certain proscription offences can be punishable by up to 14 years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.
The Home Office said Terrorgram glorifies attacks committed by “neo-fascist terrorists”, whom the network considers “Saints”.
It also encourages replication of the attacks by disseminating instructional material to help others prepare to commit acts of terrorism, it added.
The group often seeks to target young individuals to adopt their ideology.
The network has previously published propaganda material designed to incite violence against ethnic and religious communities, with calls for anti-Semitic violence.
It subscribes to “militant accelerationist and neo-fascist ideologies, notably pursuing the collapse of the Western world and a “Race War” through violent acts of terrorism”, the Home Office said.
Some 75 groups have been proscribed in the UK for extreme Islamist or other ideologies.
