ADL Blog

A deadly dispute over an LGBTQ+ Pride Flag in Cedar Glen, California, is just the latest attack in a landscape of rising anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism. On August 18, 2023, Travis Ikeguchi allegedly shot and killed Laura “Lauri” Ann Carleton right after Ikeguchi made anti-LGBTQ+ remarks about the rainbow flag outside of Carleton’s clothing store. Ikeguchi was later killed in a shootout with police.   An ADL Center on Extremism investigation into social media…

The ADL Center on Extremism is tracking an increase in antisemitic speech and trolling efforts at public forums.

On August 10, 2023, federal authorities arrested longtime white supremacist Hardy Lloyd in West Virginia. The arrest follows years of Lloyd’s incendiary and threatening online posts, but the charges are tied to his activities surrounding the trial of Robert Bowers, the white supremacist who murdered 11 people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018. Lloyd is charged with obstruction of the due administration of justice, transmitting threats in interstate and foreign commerce, and…

1. Stew Peters is a far-right conspiracy theorist and radio show host. Stew Peters rose to national prominence in 2022, thanks in large part to the success of conspiratorial documentaries he released that year, most notably, the anti-vaccine film “Died Suddenly.”   Peters launched his right-wing media career in August 2020, when he began co-hosting an online radio show called “Patriotically Correct Radio” (PC Radio) that aired on MoJo 5.0 Radio and Red…

As they rack up littering charges for distributing propaganda, some individuals associated with the antisemitic and extremist Goyim Defense League (GDL)—including leader Jon Minadeo—have adopted pseudo-legal “sovereign citizen” tactics in a misguided attempt to escape legal troubles. The sovereign citizen movement is a far-right, anti-government extremist faction whose adherents claim that the government is illegitimate and has no jurisdiction or authority over them…

On June 10, 2023, eighteen white supremacists – from two different neo-Nazi groups - held three separate demonstrations in Florida. At least six participants traveled from out of state for the events, which took place outside Disney World in Orlando and at a park in Lakeland. These gatherings show how profoundly a small group of extremists can impact entire communities -- and make residents feel that the hate is local. At the gathering in Orlando, thirteen individuals associated with…

As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies become more user-friendly, extremists and conspiracy theorists are using deepfakes, AI-generated audio and other forms of synthetic media to spread harmful, hateful and misleading content online.   Background & Definitions Synthetic media is media content which has been fully or partially generated by technology, typically through artificial intelligence or machine learning processes. This includes any…

Data compiled by the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) shows that QAnon-related content has surged on Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform last fall. QAnon is a decentralized, far-right political movement rooted in a baseless conspiracy theory that the world is controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles known as the “Deep State,” which can only be stopped by former President Trump, and that these individuals will be brought to justice during a violent…

Preliminary research by the ADL Center on Extremism appears to show Mauricio Garcia, the suspect in the Allen, Texas, mass shooting, was obsessed with violence and subscribed to a range of extremist ideologies, including antisemitism, violent misogyny and white supremacy. An initial assessment of a massive social media trove, which ADL researchers can link to Garcia with a high degree of confidence, reveals a preoccupation with violence that manifests in a wide range of hate, including…

Some activities across the U.S. marking the 17th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), which is a series of worldwide anti-Israel events spearheaded by the BDS Movement and rooted in antizionism and antisemitism, featured instances of overt antisemitism and expressions of support for violence against Israel. As is typically the case, anti-Zionist campus group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) was the primary organizer of IAW, spearheading most of the approximately 16 apartheid walls…

It is an unfortunate fact that seven decades after Israel’s founding, some criticism of the country continues to promote age-old antisemitic tropes. Even before Israel was founded, conversations about the Zionist movement and the creation of the State of Israel at times included explicit anti-Jewish animus or espoused ideas historically wielded against Jewish communities (e.g., the claim that a “cabal” is manipulating political affairs). Today, many anti-Zionist activists…

Substack, a subscription-based online newsletter platform for independent writers, continues to attract extremists and conspiracy theorists who routinely use the site to profit from spreading antisemitism, misinformation, disinformation and hate speech. Platforms with more lenient content moderation policies, like Substack, provide fertile ground for the spread of hateful rhetoric and false information – a known catalyst for offline harm and violence. For example, seemingly fringe…

Shareholders of publicly traded companies in the United States have long proposed resolutions to encourage more responsible corporate behavior. These can include demands to divest from certain funds or entities, uphold codes of conduct or make tangible commitments to improving business practices. This type of activism dates to the 1970s and is used by a range of organizations to garner support for their causes. Anti-Israel activists and investors with anti-weapons investment screens or anti…

As quickly as hotel security removed white supremacist Nick Fuentes from CPAC 2023, the Groyper found another receptive audience for his antisemitism and racism. The "Fuentes Rally" took place on March 4, 2023, at Marriott’s Residence Inn at the National Harbor in Maryland. Reporters were not allowed inside the event. Although Fuentes and other Groypers bragged online that the event was at “venue capacity,” the hotel website indicates the capacity of their largest event…

In the aftermath of the February 3, 2023, freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a range of misinformation and unfounded claims has emerged as extremists and conspiracy theorists leverage the event for their own political and ideological gain. This includes the white supremacist and virulently antisemitic National Justice Party (NJP), which has capitalized on the outrage and suspicions around the Norfolk incident to organize protests in  Ohio and Georgia, promoting their…

•    Nerdeen Kiswani is an anti-Israel activist and co-founder and leader of Within Our Lifetime-United for Palestine (WOL), a radical New York-based anti-Israel organization that routinely expresses support for violence against Israel. •    Kiswani’s antisemitism is clearly expressed via her expressions of extreme anti-Zionist rhetoric, including her calls for all "Zionists" to be vilified and expelled from community spaces, as well as her…

The Nation of Islam (NOI) held its annual Saviours’ Day conference in Chicago the weekend of February 24–26, serving once again as a platform for vitriolic antisemitism and anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. Saviours’ Day 2023 marked the annual event’s return to a large-scale arena setting for the first time in three years; the NOI held smaller, semi-virtual conferences during the intervening pandemic-era years. NOI speakers injected familiar antisemitic and conspiratorial…

Several incidents in 2022, including a 12-hour hostage crisis at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, with an Islamist extremist perpetrator, demonstrate the ongoing threat of Islamist extremism and are a reminder that the U.S. faces a diverse set of extremist threats. While the number of individuals arrested in connection to crimes motivated by Islamist extremism has declined significantly in recent years after peaking in 2015, three violent Islamist attacks in 2022 illustrate this ideology…

Incidents of antisemitism remain at historic levels in the United States. In fact, antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish institutions jumped 61 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to  ADL’s 2021 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents. Based on preliminary data, the 2022 numbers will tell a similar story.   Fears about antisemitism have been on the rise since a mass shooter claimed 11 lives at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018, the deadliest antisemitic…

On December 3, 2022, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) tracked several extremist events targeting the LGBTQ+ community. This wave of bigoted action from the Proud Boys, the virulently antisemitic Goyim Defense League and two white supremacist groups, comes just weeks after five people were murdered and at least 19 injured in a shooting at an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Earlier this week, a Texas man was arrested for making death threats against a Boston physician who provides…