Young people are gathering in online communities where violence itself can become the attraction. Some cases have spilled into real-world attacks.
The phenomenon is being described as nihilistic violent extremism. Its exact scale is still unclear, but investigators from nine European countries identified about 4,340 web addresses linked to an online community known as “The COM” during a campaign in June and July.
“It’s violence for the sake of violence,” EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Bartjan Wegter told The Associated Press ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Young people at the center
The EU’s existing terrorism figures show how heavily young people feature in the cases authorities are dealing with.
Last year, 45 terrorist attacks were recorded in 10 of the EU’s 27 countries. Six people were killed. Europol said 486 people suspected of links to terrorism were arrested in 21 member states.
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Jihadist groups were responsible for 24 of the attacks and accounted for more than 70% of the arrests. Around one-third of those arrested were under 18, most of them boys. Nihilistic violent extremism is harder to measure. Europol does not keep separate statistics for it because the definition varies and some incidents can be treated as ordinary crimes rather than terrorism.
Wegter said the online networks behind these cases have been growing for the past two to three years. They are often run by young people and aimed at other young people. The motivation can be very different from conventional extremist movements. “There’s not a direct link with ideology,” Wegter told AP. He described the attraction as a fascination with violence and the status it can bring inside online communities.
From screens to real-world attacks
Authorities have linked the online phenomenon to several violent incidents.
In Finland in 2025, a 16-year-old boy stabbed three female students. He allegedly shared a manifesto in WhatsApp groups and recorded the attack on Snapchat. He reportedly wanted to do something “significant” and “exciting” and did not identify a political motive.
In Italy, authorities said a 15-year-old boy planned a killing to gain notoriety online.
These cases can be difficult to detect. Young suspects may have no criminal record and little trace outside encrypted online communities, Wegter said. European authorities are also monitoring the 764 network, which has been linked to serious violent and sexual crimes. The threat looks very different from the one Europe faced after 9/11. Then, extremist networks relied heavily on physical training and cross-border movement. Today, much of the organizing can happen online.
“The online environment, for all the good things it brings, it is still too permissive,” Wegter said, “it is a place where different threats can connect.”
AI adds another layer
Artificial intelligence is making the online environment harder to police.
Europol says criminals are using AI to create and alter propaganda, including deepfakes, memes and GIFs. AI-powered bots have also been used to promote terrorist ideologies and recruit people, while AI tools have been used to research attacks. “The kind of violent content, violence inciting content, propaganda, manuals, tactics, everything that is available, is very much amplified by AI,” Wegter said. Wegter said 85% of investigations now take place in the digital environment, leaving law enforcement with little choice but to adapt.
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That raises another problem: how far authorities should go in monitoring online communications. Privacy advocates argue that people have a right to communicate without unjustified surveillance. Wegter, meanwhile, said law enforcement needs the tools to deal with threats that increasingly exist online.
The EU already requires platforms to remove identified terrorist content within one hour under rules that took effect in 2022. But the emerging networks are difficult to track. They move through encrypted spaces, involve young users and can blur the line between terrorism and other forms of violent crime.
