The Holocaust – the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II – stands out as a preeminent example of modern-day state-sponsored mass murder. Despite the Holocaust’s distinctive status, or perhaps because of it, politicians, activists and other public figures often invoke inappropriate Holocaust comparisons to highlight the ostensible “danger” of a social or political act. Even with…

Right-wing extremists cheered the announcement; they believe Musk will usher in a new era on the social media platform, free from “left-wing” censorship.

April 11, 2022 Over a hundred million American adults read news on social media, but in the wake of the crisis in Ukraine, antisemitism, hate speech, and disinformation have spread widely on Facebook. ADL researchers found evidence of the continued presence of problematic posts on the platform, the most popular site for getting news, as well as the prevalence of external links directing users to alternative platforms and sites popular among extremists. Roughly 61% of these posts included links…

April 05, 2022 Introduction  In recent years, American public life has been increasingly marked by the rise of extremism and the erosion of democratic norms. A torrent of white supremacist activity and the growing prevalence of conspiracy theories have spurred some individuals and groups to commit acts of violence. American society has been further compromised by rampant misinformation, resulting in a deeply divided and polarized electorate. Concomitantly, antisemitism has been at a…

April 05, 2022 ISIS claimed the March 27 terrorist attack in Hadera, Israel by releasing this video of the alleged attackers pledging their allegiance to ISIS leadership. A week of violent Islamist extremist attacks in Israel beginning on March 22, 2022, left 11 people dead and many more wounded. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for two of the attacks, and released a video of two of the terrorists swearing an oath of allegiance to the terrorist group in a…

April 05, 2022 Update: On Tuesday, April 5, 2022, Creech appeared on the Alex Jones Show, where he confirmed his identity -- and his role in perpetrating the biolab conspiracy theory. The ADL Center on Extremism has, with a high degree of confidence, identified “Clandestine,” the man behind the viral biolab conspiracy theory, as Jacob Creech, a self-described former restaurant manager and Army National Guard veteran living in rural Virginia. The discovery highlights…

April 04, 2022 Source: Boston University Students for Justice in Palestine The 16th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), a series of worldwide anti-Israel events, took place in the United States and Canada March 21-28, 2022. This year’s theme, announced on the BDS Movement’s website, was "the role of culture, and art in particular, in decolonizing our minds in our collective struggles against cultural appropriation and oppression." While some events reflected the week…

March 14, 2022 Mainstream social media companies have allowed Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan’s antisemitism and anti-vaccine disinformation to once again find a home on their platforms. In the days since Farrakhan’s annual Saviours’ Day address was broadcast on February 27, 2022, videos of the hours-long speech have received over 500,000 views across dozens of YouTube channels and Facebook pages. The content of the address, which as ADL previously reported,…

March 09, 2022 Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, extremists and antisemites across the ideological spectrum have used the war as fodder for promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. Emanating from classic antisemites and white supremacists, as well as QAnon influencers and Proud Boys acolytes, classic tropes of Jewish power, financial control and “abuse” of the Holocaust narrative abound online. In just a few short weeks, tens of thousands of social…

March 03, 2022 In the week since Russian President Putin declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine, the Russian leader has become a pariah among much of the global community. Even white supremacist communities, once steadfast in their support for Putin’s Russia, are now questioning whether the invasion is worth the cost in “white” lives. They are also railing against non-white refugees resettling in “white” Europe and offering support for a…

February 28, 2022 The Nation of Islam (NOI) held its annual Saviours’ Day event on February 27, 2022. The event, which commemorates the birth of NOI founder Fard Muhammad and culminates in a keynote address by longtime NOI leader Louis Farrakhan, regularly features extensive antisemitic, bigoted and conspiratorial rhetoric. In 2022, Farrakhan again injected antisemitism into his address,  claiming that Jews are the enemy of Jesus and promoting antisemitic tropes about Jewish…

February 27, 2022 The America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC III) was held on February 25, 2022, in Orlando, Florida. This annual white supremacist event is purposely held in Orlando to coincide with the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event taking place nearby. This year, nine individuals, including white supremacists, media personalities and political figures spoke at the conference (three of these speakers spoke virtually through pre-recorded videos). …

February 25, 2022 Nicholas Fuentes, a well-known white supremacist pundit and organizer, will host his third annual America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC III) in Orlando, Florida on February 25, 2022. Fuentes founded AFPAC in 2020 to serve as a counterweight to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event being held at the same time, also in Orlando. Fuentes’ third AFPAC conference will not only bring together the Groypers, followers and supporters of…

February 25, 2022 On February 23, 2022, the People’s Convoy trucker demonstration, ostensibly aimed at ending nationwide COVID-related policies, departed the Adelanto Stadium parking lot in Southern California, bound for Washington, D.C. Smaller convoys, like the one that launched the same day in Scranton, PA, are being planned in several states, but the People’s Convoy is the most organized and high-profile of these protests. While there is no evidence of extremist groups…

February 23, 2022 On Saturday, February 19, 2022, 43-year-old Benjamin Jeffrey Smith allegedly fired into a crowd of racial justice protestors, killing one woman and injuring five other people. Smith reportedly initially yelled at the group of protesters who were gathering on his block in Portland, Oregon, to protest the recent police killing of Amir Locke, a Black man who was shot while Minneapolis police were serving a no-knock warrant. Smith, who police have named as the primary suspect,…

February 16, 2022 Truckers line up their vehicles on Metcalfe Street as they honk their horns in Ottawa, Canada on February 5, 2022. | Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images - Source: Politico For the second time since February 13, an unknown hacker leaked information from GiveSendGo, a Christian-oriented crowdfunding website, revealing identifying information of people donating both to Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” protest and the January 6 demonstration outside the U.S. Capitol…

February 10, 2022 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 The Biden Administration’s Nominee for U.S. Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Anti-Semitism Deborah Lipstadt vowed to speak out against antisemitism, regardless of the political affiliation, as the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee finally held her confirmation hearing this week. A Jewish high school student was reprimanded for refusing to give a Nazi salute in his Alabama classroom. Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker of Congregation Beth Israel…