Cameron Finnigan was just 19 when he was convicted of preparing to murder a homeless man living in a tent near his home in Horsham, West Sussex. He was also found guilty of trying to manipulate a young woman into killing herself. “The only risk I was concerned about,” he later said in a police interrogation, “is if she went through with it and I got caught.” In 2023, a 17-year-old German teenager named Nino Luciano went much further. A video uploaded to Discord and then spread across “gore” websites shows him walking up to an 74-year-old woman, saying “Hello” to her, and then stabbing her to death. He had earlier attempted to kill an elderly man by pushing him down a staircase, but he survived. Finnigan pleaded guilty to encouraging suicide, possessing a terrorism manual, and indecent images of a child in January this year. But while he was convicted under terror legislation, his actions did not have a clear political motive. Luciano’s motives are similarly complex. Finnigan went by acid764 on Telegram and Luciano by Tobbz764. They were part of an online network called 764 that revels in violence and suffering for its own sake. Those tied to 764 chase the thrill of inflicting pain, coupled with a hunger to carve out infamy as the most unhinged members in the group chats on Telegram, Discord and Wire that form part of the network. (…) Since 2021 a number of arrests by individuals affiliated to 764 have taken place across the US, where it originated, and Europe. In the US there have been at least 13 arrests related to 764, with all being charged with child exploitation material and two school shootings where the perpetrator had connections to 764. Eight of these have been 20 or younger. In Europe details of cases are scarce because perpetrators tend to be minors and more often relate to violent crime. Cases of child exploitation material are nevertheless common. One of the youngest of these perpetrators was a 14-year-old from Stockholm, Sweden, who was arrested in 2024 after attacking mostly elderly people on eight different occasions by sneaking up on them from behind and stabbing them late at night. He filmed most of the attacks. The 14-year-old went by the moniker Slain764 in the network and ran the local section of “No Lives Matter” (NLM), a group affiliated with 764 focused on offline violence.
via hope not hate: 764 THE ONLINE EXPLOITATION CULT GROOMING TEENAGERS TO VIOLENCE