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Europol said investigators from nine European countries flagged 4,340 URLs for removal during Referral Action Days aimed at disrupting The Com, a decentralized online network tied to nihilistic violent extremism. The operation, organized by Europol’s EU Internet Referral Unit and Spain’s CITCO, targeted content spread across social media, messaging apps, and gaming platforms that promoted self-harm, suicide, child sexual abuse material, animal cruelty, violent attacks, and guides for grooming, murder, improvised explosives, doxing, and swatting.
Authorities said The Com recruits and grooms young people online, often coercing minors through sextortion and pushing them toward both victimization and offending. Europol linked the action to its broader Project COMPASS effort, which had already produced arrests, identified suspects, and located victims, and noted that subgroups associated with the network include 764. That subgroup drew earlier law-enforcement attention after U.S. prosecutors charged alleged leaders of 764 with operating a global child exploitation enterprise, underscoring how extremist online communities are overlapping with organized child abuse and coercion networks.
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Europol said Project COMPASS has now produced 303 arrests, 626 identified or partially identified victims, 179 identified or partially identified perpetrators, four safeguarded victims, and nine awareness activities tied to The Com. The updated figures show a substantial escalation from previously reported enforcement and victim-identification totals.
A July 24, 2026 report on Europol's international action against The Com said investigators from nine countries flagged more than 4,800 URLs containing violent extremist and criminal material. The content reportedly included assault and suicide videos, murder and IED manuals, and swatting-related material.
Europol announced that the Referral Action Days resulted in an estimated 4,340 URLs being flagged or referred for removal for disturbing content associated with The Com. The announcement was made on July 24, 2026.
Over several weeks in June and July 2026, Europol, Spain's CITCO, and investigators from nine European countries carried out Referral Action Days targeting online content linked to The Com. The operation aimed to disrupt the network's online ecosystem, curb propaganda, and generate investigative leads.
Before the July 2026 referral action, Europol's broader Project Compass had already produced 30 arrests, identified 179 suspects, and identified 62 victims linked to The Com. The supplied references do not state specific dates for those outcomes.
A Europol report described the growth of online cult communities dedicated to extremely violent child abuse, including networks later associated with "The Com" ecosystem and 764. The reference does not provide a specific event date in the supplied content.
The FBI's IC3 issued a public service announcement warning that IRL Com, a subset of The Com, had evolved from the SIM-swapping community into a violence-as-a-service market. The notice said IRL Com groups advertise paid violent acts such as shootings, kidnappings, armed robbery, stabbings, assault, bricking, and swatting-for-hire, and urged victims to preserve evidence and report incidents.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that leaders of 764 were arrested and charged with operating a global child exploitation enterprise. A later reference also cites these arrests as having occurred in April 2025.
Europol launched Project Compass in January 2025 with participation from law enforcement agencies in 28 countries to coordinate action against The Com. The initiative later underpinned referral and investigative actions targeting the network's online ecosystem and associated abuse.
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A Europol-coordinated law enforcement effort dubbed **Project Compass** has led to the arrest of **30 suspected members of “The Com,”** a decentralized, largely Western, youth-driven cybercrime ecosystem linked to hacking, sextortion, and related physical harm targeting minors and other vulnerable individuals. Europol said **28 countries** participated, and authorities have **fully or partially identified 179 perpetrators**, with the operation framed as an attempt to disrupt violent online extremism that can function like an “online cult community” recruiting offenders and victims. The reporting also notes law enforcement focus on **spinoff groups such as “764,”** which the U.S. Department of Justice has described as a **“nihilistic violent extremist group.”** Separately, U.S. officials described ongoing efforts against **Southeast Asian scam compounds** conducting *pig-butchering* and other cryptocurrency investment fraud and laundering at scale; while related to transnational cyber-enabled crime, that activity is a different enforcement and threat topic than Project Compass and “The Com.”
Jun 29, 2026
U.S. and European authorities are intensifying efforts against **The Com**, a sprawling, youth-driven ecosystem associated with cyber-enabled extortion, harassment, and offline violence. Europol-coordinated **Project Compass**, supported by 28 countries (including the Five Eyes), reported **30 arrests**, the full or partial identification of **179 perpetrators**, the safeguarding of **four victims**, and the identification of up to **62 victims**; officials described The Com as splintered into **Hacker Com**, **In Real Life Com**, and **Extortion Com**, with members using identity obfuscation and financial laundering to evade detection. Separate reporting highlighted the **764 network** as a decentralized online threat linked to the **grooming and coercion of minors** via trust-based manipulation across mainstream platforms, aligning with recent U.S. federal law-enforcement warnings about structured grooming “architectures” and targeting patterns. While 764 and The Com are not presented as the same organization, both references describe overlapping risk themes—online communities that deliberately target minors, blend digital coercion with real-world harm, and create downstream organizational risk through victimization, extortion, and exploitation that can spill into schools, families, and workplaces.
Jun 29, 2026
The FBI and IC3 warned that **nihilistic violent extremist networks** and broader communities known as **"The Com"** are targeting children and other vulnerable people online through extortion, coercion, stalking, and abuse. Federal notices said the groups operate across social media, messaging apps, gaming platforms, and other online services, using threats, manipulation, and criminal tradecraft to pressure victims into self-harm, sexual exploitation, violence, and other dangerous acts in the United States and abroad. Reporting and law-enforcement disclosures tied those networks to a wider cybercrime ecosystem that overlaps with groups linked to major intrusions, SIM swapping, credential theft, doxing, swatting, sextortion, and ransomware activity. CyberScoop reported federal investigators were probing **764** and related actors for using cybercriminal methods to facilitate violent crimes, while KrebsOnSecurity described connections among harm groups, **Scattered Spider**, **LAPSUS$**, and other actors associated with breaches and abuse campaigns. Separate FBI outreach on malware hidden in games hosted on **Steam** underscored how gaming platforms are also being used to reach and victimize users, especially younger targets.
Jun 29, 2026