Warning: This report discusses themes of self-harm, animal mutilation, suicide, and sexual assault.
Weeks after the bodies of his mother and stepfather were found murdered, Nikita Casap was arrested on March 1, 2025, in WaKeeney, Kansas, after being pulled over for running a stop sign more than 800 miles away.
The then-17-year-old from Waukesha, Wisconsin, is alleged to have shot his parents, lived in his family home with the bodies for two weeks, and used his deceased stepfather’s vehicle to drive across the country, allegedly with a plan to assassinate President Donald Trump and then flee to start a new life in Ukraine.
Besides firearms and ammunition, Casap was found with materials related to the Order of Nine Angles (O9A), an occult belief system that started in the UK and is often associated with neo-Nazi movements. Despite Casap, according to court documents, wanting to assassinate the president in order to “save the white race” and “accelerate the collapse,” the text also included a passage describing Casap as a “nihilistic violent extremist.”
“Nihilistic violent extremists (NVEs) are individuals who engage in criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive primarily from a hatred of society at large,” a warrant application signed by an FBI Special Agent read, “and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability.”
NVE is new term—which seems to have first been been referenced by the US government in the Casap case—that is increasingly being used by researchers, journalists, and activists who study radical and extremist networks. Far from a universal or agreed upon designation, it is an evolving framework being developed to quantify a little-understood form of criminal behavior. Falling under the NVE umbrella are groups like 764, 1378, and No Lives Matter (NLM), who require members to coerce victims into self-mutilation, create and share child sexual abuse material, and carry out acts of violence to gain membership.
In recent months, the FBI and the Department of Justice have repeatedly applied the term NVE to individuals arrested for criminal or possibly terrorist activities who are affiliated with nihilistic networks. The problem is the definition of NVE used by the United States government is wildly broad, and may be used to obscure violence motivated primarily by far-right extremism in cases where an individual may also be active in emergent networks of nihilistic violence.
A Serious Threat, A Political Tool
Since the start of Trump’s second term, there has been a deprioritization of domestic extremism, particularly when it comes to the far-right. While many definitions used to describe NVE attempt to earnestly address an emergent radical culture, the concept is also being used as a catch-all for extremist violence that has at times important connections to far-right extremism.
The definition advanced by researchers typically precludes ideology as a primary or even secondary motivator for violent action. The US government’s interpretation for NVE could easily apply to other prominent extremist ideologies, including “militant accelerationism,” whose proponents seek to exacerbate existing social divisions to accelerate what they view as the inevitable collapse of civilization. This belief system has informed the actions of numerous groups and networks, particularly neo-Nazi terrorist groups like the Maniac Murder Cult (MYK); the Atomwaffen Division, which was linked to five murders before disbanding in 2020; and The Base, which in June 2025, had a member arrested and charged in the UK for allegedly planning to attack synagogues. The group has also claimed that a local cell killed a senior intelligence officer in Kyiv, Ukraine.
When Guy Edward Bartkus detonated a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) outside a Palm Springs fertility clinic in May 2025, he left behind an audio manifesto and websites outlining his belief in Efilism, an obscure anti-natalist philosophy that views giving birth as an act of cruelty. The FBI referred to the attack as “nihilistic” despite there being a clear ideological motivation.
There are examples of individuals and groups that straddle the line between far-right ideological justification and framing for violence and the post-ideological nihilism of NVEs. The most well- known being the Maniac Murder Cult (MKY), which began as a neo-Nazi skinhead group in Ukraine around 2017. Founded by Yegor Krasnov, the group recorded and posted footage of violent attacks against people alleged to be immigrants or homeless. The group’s membership requirements necessitated committing violent acts ranging from assault to arson to murder. After Krasnov was arrested, control of the group was taken up by Michail Chkhikvishvili, aka “Commander Butcher.”
Under Chkhikvishvili, MKY held onto its militant accelerationist roots, promoting racialized violence, alongside increasing calls for indiscriminate harm. MKY collaborated openly with groups that meet a more concise definition of NVE, like NLM and 764 (described in depth below). In November 2025, Chkhikvishvili pleaded guilty to a plot that would have distributed poison candies to minority and Jewish children in New York City.
Chkhikvishvili’s adherence to neo-Nazism is noted in court documents, yet Attorney General Pamela Bondi emphasized in a press release, “Violent, nihilistic, racist groups like these are an ongoing threat to the American people – our vigilance will not waver as we protect our citizens.”
Difficult Definitions
There are several key characteristics for determining what is and is not part of the NVE sphere. While the behaviors of NVE actors are not novel, they often defy what might be considered traditional motivations and characteristics of extremism and terrorism. What can further complicate this identification is the adoption of aesthetics and imagery, but not necessarily the beliefs, of other extremist movements, whether they be from the occult, neo-Nazis or white supremacists, or Islamist extremism.
Key characteristics of NVE-inspired networks include a grievance-based motivation for violent or harmful action without a clear ideological component. Ideology may be present, but is a secondary or lesser factor. Factors that do motivate individuals to action include a substantial focus on reputation among their peers or community, as well as a desire for infamy among the public. Like other violent ideologies, there is a hatred and rejection of modern society, though the purpose of violence or harm is for the sake of the violence itself, not to result in a particular political or ideological outcome.
Untangling NVE From The Far Right
NVE and extreme right-wing networks cross in relation to participants, tactics, and inspiration. This is not a coincidence, as the NVE ecosystem is an evolution and continuation of previously existing extremist subcultures like militant accelerationism. Often, this means NVEs using symbols adopted for their aesthetic and the violent reputation, rather than an in-depth adherence to the ideology they represent. This is how iconography from white supremacy, neo-Nazism, and violent Islamist groups can all appear in the same social space.
The largest commonalities are primarily the visual language used by NVEs and extreme far-right groups. In particular, NVE networks associated with child abuse and extortion as part of a collaborative cybercriminal network, The Com, were early adopters of neo-Nazi symbolism in their propaganda, including one of the most infamous organizations, 764. These groups included symbols and language often taken from National Socialism, the O9A, and other extreme occult movements. The aesthetic of these movements is notably more important to adherents than their actual meaning.
Spread throughout similar forums, image boards, and social media, participants in the subcultures that surround NVE will often find themselves in close proximity or voicing support for ideologically-driven extremist groups.
Desmond Holly, the perpetrator of a September 2025 school shooting in Colorado, had expressed antisemitic conspiracy theories on his social media, even releasing videos depicting him in a skull mask—a symbol of modern militant neo-Nazi movements. His target selection—random students at his school— recreation of the clothing worn by the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine massacre, and an account on a website dedicated to sharing footage of death, including targeted attacks, suggests an affiliation with the TCC, rather than an ideological motivator. This does not mean that Holly did not have an antisemitic ideology, but based on the currently available information, the primary motivation in his attack was a desire to be counted among the ranks of other mass shooters, often known as “saints”, not provoke a race war.
Holly’s violent actions are a continuation of an evolving tradition of performance and replication put on by mass attackers. In the past year alone, there have been at least three other perpetrators of mass casualty attacks that were entrenched in the True Crime Community online ecosystem. The TCC, in the context of extremism, is an online subculture that goes beyond typical fascination to glorify mass murderers and serial killers, with some members going on to commit violent acts themselves.
This includes the targeted shooting of the Church of the Annunciation in Minnesota in August 2025. The perpetrator, Robin Westman, left behind a journal allowing for a self-narrated and curated picture into the lead up of the killings. From its earliest pages, Westman’s journal details a person obsessed with not only learning about mass shooters, but consuming graphic footage of their attacks. They demonstrate an extensive knowledge of the lives and crimes of multiple perpetrators of mass casualty events across the world, ranging from random school shooters to killers motivated by hatred, and created a personal pantheon of what they view as successful shooters.
Before Westman, there was Solomon Henderson, who on January 22, 2025, killed a fellow student and himself at a Nashville high school. Henderson had planned the act for months, leaving behind a manifesto and journal detailing his plans to kill as many people as possible. In the documents, Henderson extolled his obsession with various other mass shooters, including those who had committed far-right extremist motivated violence. He also posed for pictures in a similar manner as other killers he wished to emulate. His internet history included sites known to share gore material, including at least two accounts on the site Watch People Die (where several other killers have also had accounts used to access gore and attack footage) and the alternative video streaming site Vidlii.
As NVE traces parts of its lineage to extreme neo-Nazi movements and transgressive internet culture, many racist and symbolic elements of that heritage remain within nihilistic circles. Irony is a lingua franca adopted throughout these social networks, often obscuring the intention of perpetrators, who in the most severe cases, have left only a manifesto or journal as a final explanation.
“The Com” in Context
The term NVE describes a particular set of behaviors and motivations that cause adherents to engage in harmful, criminal, and often violent ways. This includes many individuals involved in an online network called the Com, short for “The Community.” The Com is a collaborative collection of chat rooms, social media accounts, websites, and forums that began as a place where hackers and fraudsters gathered to collaborate (and boast) about their exploits. Once a small, niche online community, some chat rooms and channels connected to the Com now have thousands of participants.
As Com grew, it began to attract and absorb existing online communities and groups. This led to the different branches or divisions of Com that engage in different types of criminality. The original branch which focused on criminal hacking and fraud came to be called “Hacker Com” or “Cyber Com.” This subset does not typically overlap with NVE spaces, as it is often motivated only by financial gain. Competing gangs from this branch, which already sometimes paid willing participants to steal cell phone retailers’ computers to help with fraud, began to hire individuals to perpetrate violence against rivals. This pioneered “violence-as-a-service” where individuals were hired to commit a variety of actions including targeted vandalism, arson, and swatting—the practice of calling in hoax emergencies to police in order to provoke an armed response.
Similarly, another branch of the network, sometimes referred to as “Offline Com” focuses on encouraging and perpetrating violent actions such as vandalism, arson, stabbings, murders, and terrorism. These are groups like Maniac Murder Cult, No Lives Matter, and 1414.
One of the most prolific and wide-reaching branches of Com is referred to as “Sextortion Com” or “Extortion Com.” This branch focuses on targeting, grooming, and eventually coercing children into committing self-harm, acts of zoosadism, creating child sexual assault material (CSAM), and recruitment of other victims.
The most well-known is the child exploitation group 764. Started in 2020 by Texas teenager Bradley Cadenhead, it combined the production of videos containing graphic violence and occult imagery with systematized approaches to coercing vulnerable youth, particularly girls, into self-harm, animal cruelty, and the production of child sexual assault material (CSAM). The group also released edited videos of graphic and gory footage spliced with occult and extremist imagery.
Cadenhead had been part of other online exploitation groups like “Cvlt” (pronounced Cult) and before that a lesser known group called “Greggy’s Cult” or the “Cult of Greg,” which similarly coerced and threatened children into committing depraved acts. This includes cutting and eating their own hair and exposing themselves over livestream. Victims were mocked and threatened while images and videos documenting their abuse were shared over platforms like Discord and Telegram.
764 gained increasing levels of infamy as Cadenhead and other senior members were arrested for a variety of child exploitation charges.
The harms they perpetrated continued though, as networks of similar exploitation and extortion proliferated. These groups are sometimes referred to as part of the 764 Network and often adopt a similar aesthetic as the original 764. After Cadenhead’s arrest in 2023, control of 764 fell to Prasan Nepal, also known as Trippy, a 20-year-old North Carolina man. Nepal and another man, Leonidas Varagiannis, also known as War, a US citizen residing in Greece, are accused of running an international child exploitation enterprise. While Greece has refused to extradite Varagiannis to the United States due to his dual citizenship, he is facing charges there.
True Crime Community
The Com, while becoming increasingly well-known, is not the only large network that contains a high concentration of NVE individuals mobilizing towards action. One of the most extreme and dangerous networks inside of the NVE sphere is another network dubbed the “True Crime Community.” Comprised of podcasts, articles, and web forums, with a significant presence on most social media platforms including Tumblr, Reddit, and X, the TCC is dedicated to in-depth investigation and fandom of the criminals who perpetrate violent acts. Often this involves the sharing of footage, images, and other media related to notable killers. Parts of this network are deeply focused on amassing gore footage and share graphically violent and disturbing content, particularly of violent criminal activity.
Participants exist in overlapping social groups and these communities may interact with violent content in different ways.
Solomon Henderson, who referenced the TCC in his manifesto, was part of a network of image board users sometimes referred to as Soyjak Attacker Video Fandom (SAVF), an overlapping network with the TCC. School shooter Natalie Rupnow had a Telegram invitation to the same chat room where Arda Küçükyetim, a mass stabber in Türkiye who ran into a tea garden in August 2024 dressed in tactical gear and a half-skull mask, had posted his manifesto and links to a live stream of the attack. He injured five people before attempting to flee on foot.
Küçükyetim cited a network of far-right, neo-Nazis called the Terrorgram Collective as partly inspiring his attack in a manifesto, while researchers tied an unidentified online accomplice named “Hansen” to the SAVF. Küçükyetim’s case, like Desmond Holly and MKY, shows that these networks can and do overlap with far-right networks.
Borderless Destruction
Related cases and victims have been reported in North America, Asia, Australia, Europe, and South America. There remain few regions untouched by these networks. Victims are sought often from online communities comprised of vulnerable people that include those who struggle with eating disorders, mental illness, and gender identity. As victims are often encouraged to become perpetrators, this means there can be diverse membership, even among those who idolize white supremacist killers.
In the US alone, there were a reported 250 open cases related to 764 spread across the FBI’s 55 field offices. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue found 15 school shootings or disrupted attack plots connected to TCC since 2024.
Canadian researcher Marc-André Argentino found that between 2020 and 2025, there have been 194 arrests connected to the Com Network in 29 different countries cited in public law enforcement and media reporting. Out of the cases, an estimated 5,040 individuals or entities have been “damaged, harmed, victimized, or killed.”
There have been multiple violent street crimes connected to the networks including in 2022 when Nino Luciano, known online as Tobbz764, stabbed two people in two separate incidents on the streets of Mediaș, Romania. Luciano livestreamed both attacks. In 2024, a 14-year-old in Sweden, using the moniker Slain, was arrested for allegedly committing eight stabbings in Hässelby. The boy was reported as a prominent figure in the NVE groups NLM and 764. He posted video of these attacks to chat rooms on the application Telegram.
Several groups and individuals have also produced manuals, some hundreds of pages long, dedicated to instructing others on how to create fake identities online and use them to extort children, techniques for protecting their online privacy from law enforcement, and methods to producing poisons and explosives.
With the reach and anonymity provided by online platforms, NVEs have shown themselves to be highly adaptable to changing technology and social environments. They recruit and target victims from a variety of platforms including popular children’s games like Minecraft and Roblox, with the users being rich targets for these groups. They also are active on most mainstream social media sites used by young people including Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, X, and many more smaller emergent platforms. While accounts that engage in the behavior characteristic of NVE are often suspended, even on applications like Telegram which has been resistant to moderation, they often reform and rebrand under different titles.
NVE remains an emergent and prevailing threat across jurisdictions and borders. Unrestrained by ideology and bound only by a social status rooted in infamy, these individuals are dangerous, young, and stupid enough that there is an already proven risk to the public.
To facilitate easier understanding we are including the glossary terms commonly associated with NVE networks.
764: 764 was a transnational child exploitation group dedicated to targeting and coercing young and vulnerable people into committing acts that included self-harm, animal mutilation, and the creation of child sexual assault material. Recordings, livestreams, and images of these events are then shared and distributed among the network. Started in 2021 by then-15-year-old Texas boy Bradly Cadenhead, the group takes its name from the first three numbers of his zipcode. The group has been through several iterations as its membership have faced arrests.
764 Network: The 764 Network, also referred to as the 764 Enterprise, describes the larger network of Com groups, sometimes referred to as Exploitation Com, that use similar tactics and aesthetics to the original 764. The title is derived from the notoriety of the original 764 group.
Bricking: Throwing a brick through the window of a building or residence. Some NVE groups will list bricking as one of the acts that can be performed as a membership requirement. “Bricking-as-a-service” emerged from the Com ecosystem as a way of hiring someone to throw a brick through the window of a targeted property.
The Com/The Community: A large online social community of cybercriminals and their supporters. Different branches of the Com are dedicated to a variety of acts that include financial fraud, targeted and random violence, and sexual extortion of minors and vulnerable people. Rather than existing on one platform or website, the Com is a diffuse and decentralized network made up of different groups and individuals.
Cutshow: Livestreamed footage, typically over applications like Discord or Telegram, of an individual performing acts of self-harm like cutting. Victims are often recruited from existing online self-harm communities and pressured to make increasingly deeper cuts.
Cutsign: An act of self-harm, where an individual will cut the screen name of an abuser or the name of a group into their skin.
Fansign: The act of writing an individual’s screen name on the body or face.
Nihilistic Violent Extremism: The term describes individuals or loose online networks driven primarily by a generalized hatred of society or a fascination with extreme violence, who promote or carry out serious harm for the sake of violence, notoriety, or chaos rather than coherent political, religious, or strategic goals.
True Crime Community: The TCC is a network of podcasts, articles, web forums, with a significant presence on most social media platforms including Tumblr, Reddit, and X. Often this involves the sharing of footage, images, and other media related to notable killers. Parts of this network are deeply focused on amassing gore footage and share graphically violent and disturbing content, particularly of violent criminal activity. Other parts of the network actively encourage others to undertake their own attack.
Violence Fascinated Individual: A designation produced by the United Kingdom that describes a “violence‑fascinated individual (VFI)” as someone who lacks a clear identifiable ideology, but shows a “fascination with extreme violence or mass-casualty attacks” and may be at risk of committing extreme violence despite no political, religious or ideological motivation.
