Europol's Referral Action Days and Project Compass
Europol described the recent activity as part of its Referral Action Days — a focused push to remove content that recruiters and extortionists tied to The Com use to groom and radicalise young people. Those Referral Action Days sit inside a broader effort Europol calls Project Compass, which began in 2025 and pools law-enforcement partners across the US, UK, and EU member states. Europol says the action days were aimed at "disrupting The Com’s online ecosystem and stopping the spread of its propaganda."
Countries and investigators involved
Investigators from Belgium, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden took part in the Referral Action Days during June and July. Europol said Project Compass spans partner law-enforcement agencies in the US, UK, and EU member states, and that its European Counter Terrorism Centre has received "hundreds" of requests from member states and others over the past two years to help investigate crimes linked to The Com.
The content Europol flagged
Europol said the 4,340 URLs flagged for removal included "violent videos and images depicting self-harm, suicide, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), animal cruelty, and violent attacks." The material also included so-called blood walls — paintings made with blood that display an extorter’s alias and group affiliation — and cut-signs, where victims are forced to carve an extorter’s name into their bodies.
Investigators additionally identified videos of street attacks and arson, manuals on how to commit violent attacks, and materials giving instructions on grooming and extorting vulnerable minors, as well as tutorials on doxxing and swatting. Europol noted that many of these acts are livestreamed on social media platforms, where "online bystanders cheer them on, and later [are] saved and disseminated."
Range of criminal activity linked to The Com
Europol’s bulletin says The Com’s young members participate in a spectrum of illicit acts, from hacking, swatting, and digital extortion to real-life shootings, stabbings, and other physical violence. The international police organisation described the network as a "global threat, particularly concerning minors as both victims and perpetrators."
Europol added that various groups linked to The Com post content across social media, gaming platforms, and messaging apps in order to recruit members and groom young victims. "The more extreme and harmful the content a user or group can produce or extort, the higher their status within the online community," the agency said.
How law enforcement and online platforms are responding
Europol’s Referral Action Days were explicitly designed to push for removals of the flagged material — action framed as disrupting recruitment and the spread of propaganda. The referral work represents cooperation among EU member-state investigators and Europol, supported by Project Compass partners in the US and UK. The bulletin notes the sustained volume of requests to the European Counter Terrorism Centre over two years as a driver for that multinational coordination.
The agency pointed to the viral and persistent nature of the content — livestreaming, later saving, and dissemination — as an operational challenge that motivated the removal push across platforms over June and July.
Context: prior warnings from the UK and US
Europol’s notice follows similar concerns raised last year by UK and US authorities. In July 2025 the FBI said that an "In Real Life (IRL) Com" subgroup had become increasingly brazen in its swat-for-hire and violence-as-a-service solicitations. That FBI alert came after a UK National Crime Agency notice warning about The Com recruiting teenage boys to commit crimes ranging from cyber fraud and ransomware to child sexual abuse.
Europol’s action — flagging 4,340 URLs in a matter of weeks and coordinating investigators across nine named EU countries — underlines how law enforcement is treating The Com as a transnational problem that mixes online abuse, organised grooming, and offline violence. The immediate next step offered in the agency’s messaging is continued referral and removal work under Project Compass; whether that will reduce recruitment or the dissemination of saved livestreams is a question the operation seeks to answer through sustained, multinational action.
Original story: https://www.theregister.com/cyber-crime/2026/07/24/europol-flags-4340-horrific-urls-linked-to-the-com/5278556
