Blueprints for Violence: How Extremists Are Weaponising 3D Printing Artwork

Tech Against Terrorism

Want to learn more about how terrorists and violent extremists are using the internet to communicate and share propaganda? Perhaps you’re interested in why terrorists share their manifestos online and livestream their attacks? The Tech Against Terrorism podcast is a deep dive into the evolving use of the internet by terrorists and violent extremists, how this relates to real world harms, and what can be done to support the tech sector to disrupt this threat. Join us as we speak to the world’s leading experts in this field and uncover everything from the online propaganda behind an IS prison break in Syria, to the online network of neo-Nazis behind a foiled terrorist plot in Texas.

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Tech Against Terrorism

Blueprints for Violence: How Extremists Are Weaponising 3D Printing

May 15, 2025 • Tech Against Terrorism

Once a revolutionary manufacturing innovation, 3D printing has become a double-edged sword. While the technology is driving progress across sectors like medicine and aerospace, it’s also being exploited to produce untraceable, homemade firearms.

In this episode, host Lucas Webber is joined by Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, Assistant Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and a leading expert on the intersection of terrorism and emerging technologies. Together, they explore how 3D-printed weapons are being used by extremist actors, how online communities are spreading firearm blueprints, and why policymakers are struggling to respond to this growing security challenge.

🎧 Listen to learn:

➡︎ Why 3D printing has become so attractive to extremists.
➡︎ How online communities are facilitating the global spread of 3D-printed firearm designs.
➡︎ The different types of 3D-printed weapons in circulation.
➡︎ What governments and platforms can do to mitigate this evolving threat.

📱Connect with Yannick Veilleux-Lepage.

📚Read Yannick’s latest research Printing Terror: An Empirical Overview of the Use of 3D-Printed Firearms by Right-Wing Extremists

⚡Follow Tech Against Terrorism on Bluesky and LinkedIn.

🌐Check out the Tech Against Terrorism website.

💬 Connect with our host, Lucas Webber.

📄 Read a full transcript of this episode here.

🎙️ An OG Podcasts Ltd production.