Terrorism ‘kill guides’ shared in social media groups targeting 'loners' and people 'obsessed with violence'

24 January 2025, 08:15 | Updated: 24 January 2025, 08:16

By LBC

@LBC

An LBC investigation has uncovered how extremists are openly using social media platforms to share violent propaganda and detailed operational manuals with content available to anyone with an internet connection.

Our team identified several open-access channels containing this material within hours of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warning tougher laws could be needed to regulate the "nightmares of the online world" after it emerged Axel Rudakubana trawled the internet for extremely violent content before the Southport atrocity.

The Prime Minister also warned Britain faces a new threat of terrorism from “extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms” following the Southport murders.

These materials, which promote terrorism and violence with detailed instructions for attacks, and are alarmingly easy to access on open social media platforms, raising urgent concerns about content moderation and online safety.

Sir Mark Rowley told LBC this morning: “We have to protect young minds from the material that is out there.

“There’s material out there that gives you tactics for using knives, building explosives. That shouldn’t be in kids’ bedrooms, but it is.”

One of the most shocking discoveries is the NLM x MKU Kill Guide, a terrorism manual co-authored by two extremist groups: No Lives Matter (NLM), based in the United States, and Russia’s Maniac Murder Cult (MKU).

The guide includes tactics and techniques inspired by ISIS, providing instructions on:

• Knife attacks, from selecting the right knife to where and how many times to strike a victim.
• Constructing improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
• Making and carrying out poison attacks.
• Maintaining operational security (OPSEC).

The guide explicitly encourages attacks on civilians and outlines steps to avoid detection by authorities, underscoring the lengths to which these groups will go to promote violence and was openly available to download.

Just last week a teenage neo-Nazi Satanist who was caught with a copy of the guide and encouraged suicide online jailed for six years.

Cameron Finnigan, 19, joined a satanic extremist group known as 764 in late 2023 and told one girl to hang herself "for me" on video so he could share it in the group's online chat, the Old Bailey heard.

He was a member of two online groups which encourage increasing violence building up to potential mass casualty events, the court Old Bailey was told.

On Monday the Prime Minister warned knife killer Rudakubana and those like him represented a new kind of threat, distinct from politically or ideologically motivated terrorism, with "acts of extreme violence perpetrated by loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety".

The NLM guides have been widely shared on social media and attempt to target loners and those obsessed with violence.

According to a recent US Law Enforcement bulletin: "No Lives Matter (NLM) will use encrypted messaging platforms to recruit like-minded individuals, partner with white racially motivated extremists (WRME), and publish tactical guides."

Content LBC found being openly shared includes recruitment messages urging individuals to commit real-world acts of violence, with posts outlining requirements such as vandalism, arson, and assaults to gain membership. The group’s leaders openly encourage participants to share proof of their actions to be admitted into its ranks.

While Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told MPs on Tuesday she had asked tech companies to remove the material Rudakubana looked there remains a question of how easily technology firms can find and remove content on their platforms.

Swansea University's Professor Stuart Macdonald Coordinator of VOX-Pol, a leading expert on online extremism, terrorism, and regulatory responses told LBC one challenge for regulators will be dealing with content in the "darker, more obscure parts of the online extremist ecosystem."

Professor Macdonald said: "For some time now, the largest social media companies have faced pressure to do more to regulate and terrorist content on their platforms. But the problem is much wider than just the tech giants. There are many smaller and lesser known platforms that host such content. These include Telegram, as LBC’s investigation has shown, but there are also many others, from file-sharing sites and terrorist operated websites to decentralised messaging services and chat apps."

He said research his group has carried out over the last year has "identified terrorist content on more than 250 platforms. On some of these, the flow of propaganda faces little or no disruption, offering users stable access and the opportunity to download and share the content themselves. One of the key challenges facing regulators, including Ofcom, is to ensure that enforcement of the Online Safety Act reaches into these darker, more obscure parts of the online extremist ecosystem."

Britain faces new terror threat from ‘misfits’ after Southport murders says the PM

LBC’s investigation adds weight to growing concerns about the risks posed by lone actors who self-radicalise online. These individuals often act without direct links to organised terrorist groups, but their actions can have devastating consequences.

Jonathan Hall KC, the Independent Reviewer of State Threats Legislation, previously told LBC he was concerned about the threat of lone actors.

The private nature of some social media channels, such as Telegram, limits the impact of moderation. A chat can have 100,000 members, but if it is set as a private private group, then no one outside will be see illegal content to report it.

The ease with which these materials can be accessed has sparked concerns, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer describing the availability of violent content online as a “tidal wave of violence freely available.”

Starmer has called for urgent action to tackle platforms that enable extremist propaganda to thrive unchecked.

This morning LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast handed a full dossier of the evidence we obtained to Sir Mark Rowley the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

This is not the first time LBC has uncovered dangerous materials on social media. In a previous investigation, we revealed how far-right groups shared bomb-making guides, homemade firearm tutorials, and addresses of Islamic centres.

The ease with which such content can be accessed shows the urgent need for stronger regulation and enforcement.