Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks in the United States, European security officials say jihadist groups remain a significant threat, but authorities are increasingly concerned about a different form of violent extremism emerging among young people online.
The phenomenon, described as “nihilistic violent extremism,” is characterized by a fascination with violence that may have little or no connection to a traditional political, religious or ideological cause.
The scale of the movement remains unclear. However, investigators from nine European countries identified approximately 4,340 web addresses associated with an online community known as “The COM” during a coordinated effort to disrupt its activities in June and July.
“It’s violence for the sake of violence,” European Union Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Bartjan Wegter said ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The emerging threat comes as Europe continues to confront more established forms of terrorism.
Last year, 45 terrorist attacks were reported across 10 of the European Union’s 27 member states. About half were either prevented or failed, while six people were killed.
A total of 486 people suspected of terrorism-related activities were arrested across 21 EU countries, according to Europol.
Jihadist groups, often influenced or supported by networks outside Europe, were linked to 24 of the attacks and accounted for more than 70% of terrorism-related arrests.
Authorities are particularly concerned about the age of many suspects. About one-third of those arrested were under 18, with most of them boys.
Europol does not maintain separate statistics for nihilistic violent extremism because there is no universally accepted definition and some incidents may be classified as ordinary criminal activity rather than terrorism.
One case highlighted by European authorities occurred in Finland in 2025, when a 16-year-old boy stabbed three female students.
The teenager allegedly distributed a “manifesto” through WhatsApp groups, recorded the attack on Snapchat and later asked people on social media to preserve the footage for him.
According to an EU document examining the emerging threat, the teenager wrote that he wanted to do something “significant” and “exciting,” without identifying a political motive.
Wegter said the behavior appears to be driven in part by young people seeking recognition and status within online communities.
“It’s very much a fascination with violence,” he said, adding that violence can become a way of asserting oneself and gaining status online rather than advancing a specific ideology.
European security authorities are now grappling with how to identify and counter this evolving form of extremism while continuing to monitor the persistent threat posed by established terrorist networks.
