Penalties include up to 10 years imprisonment and heavy fines.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the government was committed to “disrupting the activities of terrorists and violent extremists”. Source: AAP / EPA / Neil Hall

In the same announcement, Wong said the Australian government had also re-listed four other entities that promote nationalist and racist violent extremist ideologies for counter-terrorism financing sanctions.

What is Terrorgram?

The channels that are part of the network frequently encourage their members to conduct racially motivated violent attacks and share instructions on how to carry them out. They also glorify those who carry out violent attacks.

At least two attacks have been linked to Terrorgram: a live-streamed stabbing of five people by an 18-year-old man outside a mosque in Türkiye in August last year, and the fatal shooting of two men at a gay bar in the Slovakian capital Bratislava in October 2022.

How have other countries responded to Terrorgram?

In April 2024, the United Kingdom government designated the Terrorgram network as a proscribed terrorist organisation, outlawing membership and support of it.

Last month, the US designated the group and three of its leaders as ‘specially designated global terrorists’, freezing any of the group’s US assets and banning Americans from dealing with it.

What is Telegram, and what does it say about the Terrorgram network?

The platform has been accused of facilitating the operations of malicious actors such as white supremacists and other extremist groups.

With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.