A federal judge sentenced a 27-year-old Tennessee man to 77 years in prison for targeting young girls through the online extremist network known as 764, which the FBI has described as a form of modern-day terrorism.
The sentence imposed Wednesday on Kyle Spitze is the longest federal prison term handed down so far to a known associate of the network. Its members, many of them young people operating internationally, use popular social media platforms to identify vulnerable teenagers, gain their trust and pressure them into harming themselves or others.
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Prosecutors said Spitze deliberately turned the suffering of underage girls into entertainment.
“You made sport of placing young minors in your own special ‘hell’ simply for the crime of being an insecure teenaged girl,” prosecutors wrote in a memorandum filed before sentencing.
According to federal authorities, Spitze claimed online that he had groomed more than 2,600 victims in the United States and other countries. Prosecutors said two of those victims eventually took their own lives because they believed they would never escape his abuse.
Although the networks can target anyone, authorities say members of 764 and similar groups frequently prey on underage girls. Offenders commonly begin by befriending their victims before using threats, blackmail and psychological manipulation to force them to share or livestream sexual material, acts of self-harm, animal torture and even suicide attempts.
Recordings of those acts are then used to continue blackmailing the victims. The material is also circulated within extremist online communities, where perpetrators use it to increase their influence and status.
Prosecutors said Spitze, who operated under the online alias “Criminal,” produced and distributed such an extensive volume of material that he became the most prolific member of 764 and an affiliated group known as Harm Nation.
“The internet provided Spitze with unlimited access to his victims, allowing him to pursue and inflict harm on young girls without ever meeting them in person,” prosecutors wrote.
The FBI and the Justice Department classify 764 as part of a growing national security threat known as nihilistic violent extremism. Authorities describe the movement as one that seeks to undermine society by glorifying and normalizing self-harm, animal cruelty and mass murder.
The FBI has said it is investigating more than 450 cases connected to nihilistic violent extremism, nearly double the number recorded a year earlier.
Court documents detailed how Spitze allegedly targeted one 12-year-old girl living in an unidentified rural community. After meeting her on a widely used social media platform, he showered her with attention and told her she was his girlfriend, a tactic prosecutors said he repeated with numerous victims.
Spitze sent the child sexually explicit videos and persuaded her to send similar recordings of herself. As his demands escalated, prosecutors said, he threatened to throw a brick through her window if she refused to obey him.
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