Stalking is one of the most unsettling and life-altering crimes that exists. An estimated 13.5 million people are stalked in the US every year. The crime can cause physical and emotional trauma—particularly due to its highly personal and invasive nature. But there’s another form of stalking that’s emerged over the past decade, one that’s festered online, tapping into people’s darkest fears and delusions, and exposing the growing vulnerabilities in humans’ psyches: gang stalking.

From its origins in dark corners of the internet to the damage it can cause, here’s everything you need to know about gang stalking.

daily affirmations
it gets better
im not being gang stalked
i dont hate my life
im not jealous

— Lea (@l09634) February 22, 2025

If someone claims to be a victim of gang stalking it means that they believe they’re being targeted, monitored, and harassed by either groups of individuals or organisations who are ‘out to get them’. Through psychological stalking and overt means of disruption, victims of gang stalking believe that there are teams of people working towards the sole objective of ruining their lives.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of what gang stalking looks like, I want to preface that the majority of discourse that exists on gang stalking depicts its victims as individuals suffering with severe mental health conditions. And while this kind of paranoia does tend to latch onto people who are in this state of vulnerability, it’s not to say that victims of gang stalking should immediately be invalidated or pushed aside. This is a highly traumatic experience and whether there’s a true basis to it or not doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Gang stalking is still a relatively new concept. Experts often describe victims of gang stalking as individuals who subscribe to a set of persecutory beliefs. This is a type of delusional condition where a person is convinced that someone is mistreating, plotting against, or planning to harm either them or their loved ones.

Conversations around gang stalking exist primarily on platforms such as X and Reddit. People who believe themselves to be victims of gang stalking refer to themselves as “targeted individuals” or “TI”. The type of harassment they believe to be taking place is always highly organised and curated.

You can find dozens of posts on social media about the topic—either from people claiming to be TIs or people who have admitted to being ‘a part’ of a gang stalking operation.

From 2019 to 2021 I participated in a gangstalking operation that resulted in our target taking his own life. Every night I see his face in my dreams and I wake up in a cold sweat, imagining a life where I didn't choose such a horrible path. The pay was great though 😭💔

— Turk Bondsman (@HachikujiRapist) February 20, 2025

Whistleblowers are always victims of gang stalking or group stalking. These criminals will go to lengths to make their victims look unstable crazy or even set them up to look like they committed a crime that victims never did.

— Workplace Mental Health Safety & Prevention (@Stopworkplacebu) February 11, 2025

I am asking ALL #TargetedIndividuals to flood the new FBI with your reports of gangstalking. I’m sure they know how big it is. Now it needs to go mainstream. pic.twitter.com/e0xmMi3pJZ

— Lupita S (@Dharma_Starma) February 24, 2025

Victims of gang stalking have spoken about feelings of being tracked by CCTV, harassed online by anonymous sources, followed by drones and unmarked cards, and tormented by constant covert surveillance.

In 2016, The New York Times wrote a feature piece on the phenomenon, interviewing someone called Timothy Trespas, a man in his early 40s who was convinced he was being stalked by dozens of organised operations. Trespas told the publication that at first he was worried it was all in his head, until he discovered an online community of TIs who explained that they too were being stalked.

“The group was organised around the conviction that its members are victims of a sprawling conspiracy to harass thousands of everyday Americans with mind-control weapons and armies of so-called gang stalkers. The goal, as one gang-stalking website put it, was ‘to destroy every aspect of a targeted individual’s life’.”

Mental health professionals have tried to band together to educate the public on the rise in these collective delusions and paranoia, but there’s still very little information available. Those who are convinced they’re victims of gang stalking create an echo chamber online, reaffirming each other’s fears.

While for the most part delusions of gang stalking do not lead to real-life violence, studies have shown that TIs have committed at least four mass shootings or acts of violence in the US since 2013.

In September 2013, Aaron Alexis, a former Navy officer who was under “the delusional belief that he was being controlled or influenced by extremely low frequency electromagnetic waves”, killed 12 people in a delusion-induced rampage.

Reassured of their own delusions by the existence of TI online communities, and reaffirmed by the proliferation of conspiracy theories online from groups such as QAnon, victims of gang stalking can often spiral into moments of mania and violence if help isn’t sought out.

Delusional disorders, while not directly linked to social media use, can be worsened by online activity. Dr. Jennifer Harrison, an expert in clinical psychology, art therapy, and trauma, told publication The Campanile stated: “Echo chambers reinforcing unusual beliefs, algorithmic content recommendations that intensify narrow worldview, reduced face-to-face interactions that might otherwise challenge false beliefs and information overload leads to difficulty in distinguishing credible sources.”

Social media has also made this delusion harder to diagnose and thereby harder to prevent spreading. Avoiding online platforms altogether is highly unrealistic given today’s current dependence on social media, however, making sure to always check other sources and not to rely solely on echo chambers for answers would be a step in the right direction.

Dr. Liz Johnston, a licensed clinical social worker and professor of Social Work at Cal Poly, told the publication that one other avenue to try and avoid these extreme delusional disorders is to encourage family members to ask questions to try and understand the context of the situation better. “The best advice is to listen patiently (without) fighting with the delusional system. If they trust you, they’ll start to use you as a reality check.”

Falling victim to gang stalking delusions can be traumatic, and for some change the entire course of their future. It’s important to always approach these situations with kindness and patience. We all know how tempting it can be at times to fall into the pit of the internet.