DR identifies two Danish men behind global sadistic network
Tuesday 3rd November 2026 on 08:15 in
Denmark
Two Danish men founded and led 1414, an active online network that blackmails children and young people into acts including vandalism, animal abuse, self-harm and violence, DR reports.
Europol confirmed to DR that the men, known by the usernames Chax and Saw, started the network. An anonymous team leader from Europol’s Project Compass, which works to combat sadistic online networks, described 1414 as one of the most notorious groups under monitoring.
“There is no fixed ideology behind it. The only thing 1414 wants is to spread terror. And right now, it is succeeding,” the team leader said.
Over the past six months, DR has monitored hundreds of online groups connected to “The Com”, a term for networks of groups on messaging services such as Telegram. The groups reward extreme violence and other abuse with status, and users share images and videos of the acts. Victims may be blackmailed into harming themselves while recording it.
DR said it has monitored more than 800 group chats and channels on Telegram since May 2026 and collected more than seven million chat messages from over 45,000 users. Its research also included more than 600 images and videos directly related to 1414.
In more than 140 images and videos showing what are known as “bloodwalls” and “cutsigns”, the names Chax and Saw appeared repeatedly. The terms refer to victims writing an abuser’s username in their own blood or cutting a username or group name into their skin. Experts told DR that people may also do this after being groomed, to gain status or access to closed groups, rather than through direct coercion.
The Europol team leader said the repeated appearance of the two names was a clear sign that Chax and Saw played an important role in 1414.
DR said some activity within The Com falls under nihilistic violent extremism, or NVE. The broadcaster has previously reported that Danish children and young people take part in NVE networks, and that Denmark’s security and intelligence service, PET, warned about NVE in a terrorism threat assessment earlier this year.