ADL Articles

Summary The United States midterm electoral campaigns are in full force as candidates prepare advertisements and voter outreach. Social media is an integral part of their campaigning as more than half of all Americans get news from a social media platform.  But false or misleading information (including misinformation, spread without malice or coordination, and disinformation, purposely created to manipulate or cause harm) runs rampant on platforms, subverting democracy and leading…

Far-right and extremist voices have launched a significant attack against the LGBTQ+ community in 2021-2022, demonizing people via repeated false claims that LGBTQ+ people are “pedophiles” who are “grooming” children in order to abuse them. This false and malicious narrative has been weaponized to label the LGBTQ+ community as “groomers” and has fueled a slew of hostile legislation and policies aimed at erasing the discussion of LGBTQ+ related issues in…

Immediately following President Biden's September 2, 2022, speech, far-right influencers and extremists responded online with hateful, bigoted rhetoric.

WESPAC (Westchester People’s Action Coalition) Foundation is a progressive nonprofit organization based in White Plains, New York that funds and supports community-based and activist initiatives. While bolstering numerous laudable causes that strive for racial, reproductive and environmental justice, among other efforts, WESPAC also serves as a major node in the funding and administration of campus anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and pro-Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) groups,…

Update: In late August 2022, Boston Children’s Hospital received a bomb threat via phone call, forcing the hospital and the surrounding area to go on lockdown. A bomb squad was unable to locate any explosive device and determined the threat to be a hoax. On September 15, 2022, law enforcement officials announced that they arrested the suspect responsible: 37-year-old Catherine Leavy of Westfield, MA, who referred to hospital employees as “sickos”&nbsp…

In response to the recent fighting between Israel and terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), anti-Zionist groups around the world mobilized to protest Israel’s military operations targeting PIJ sites inside Gaza, with many groups specifically expressing outrage over the number of civilian casualties there. According to reports, PIJ misfires were responsible for the deaths of at least eight Palestinian civilians, and the Israeli military acknowledged responsibility for the…

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, denying Americans’ constitutional right to abortion. Immediately, antisemites and extremists saw the decision as an opportunity to attack abortion rights and to link their hatred of abortion to their antisemitism. Antisemites took to online platforms, some pushing age-old antisemitic tropes of Jewish control and conspiracy, while others demonized Judaism as a baby-killing religion. This piece explores the phenomenon&nbsp…

Do you have someone in your life who has been drawn in by a conspiracy theory? Has their behavior changed and you’re not sure how you can help? Perhaps your parents have ventured down the QAnon rabbit hole and have become obsessed with trying to decode social media posts by public figures. They send you a daily stream of articles and YouTube videos about how the government is controlled by pedophiles who are running a child sex trafficking ring, and they’re especially worried…

Olivia Julianna (who uses only her first and middle name publicly to protect her privacy) has been an activist for several years, advocating voting rights and reproductive-health care. Like many in her generation, she found the political side of TikTok where young people post about important issues facing them. Olivia is involved with Gen-Z for Change, a nonprofit organization leveraging social media to promote civil discourse and political action on a variety of topics including…

1. Torba is the founder and CEO of Gab, a social media platform and haven for hate and disinformation Andrew Torba is the founder and CEO of Gab, an online hub for extremist and conspiratorial content. Since Gab’s inception in 2016, Torba has positioned the platform as a “free speech” alternative to Twitter and other popular social media websites. Because of the platform’s lax policies around content moderation, Gab quickly became known as a platform used by…

UPDATE 8/18: Following ADL's investigation, YouTube terminated both the First Works Baptist Church and Verity Baptist Church channels. In recent months, pastors affiliated with the virulently antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ New Independent Fundamental Baptist (New IFB) movement have taken advantage of YouTube Shorts, significantly expanding the reach of their hateful content. Using this relatively new social media tool, some New IFB pastors have increased the average viewership on their…

Antisemitic conspiracy theories, particularly in regard to a Florida-based Jewish judge, are circulating widely online in response to the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago.

Swatting is the deliberate and malicious act of reporting a false crime or emergency to evoke an aggressive response (often a SWAT team) from a law enforcement agency to a target's residence or place of work to harass and intimidate them. Alarmingly, swatting appears to be on the rise. Kevin Kolbye, a former FBI agent with expertise in swatting, estimates incidents have jumped from 400 cases in 2011 to over 1,000 in 2019. Unfortunately, the actual number is unknown because the FBI does not…

As the primary season comes to an end, the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) continues to monitor a range of candidates who hold extreme views, associate with extremists, spread disinformation and/or promote potentially dangerous conspiracy theories. In the course of this research, the COE has identified two particularly concerning failed extremist candidates who hold anti-government and white supremacist ideologies and have shared antisemitic views online. These men did not openly express or…

An analysis of right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' online GiveSendGo campaign shows that conspiratorial narratives and figures are motivating donors to contribute.

On August 11, 2022, Ricky Shiffer reportedly attempted to breach the FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the attack he fired a nail gun and brandished an assault rifle, fleeing initially in his car then on foot and exchanging gunfire with police. After a lengthy standoff in a cornfield, he was shot and killed by police.  Shiffer, 42, of Columbus, Ohio, is a former Navy sailor. He appears to be an extreme supporter of former president Trump who, like others, considered the FBI…

UPDATE: August 16, 2022: Adam Bies, a photographer from Mercer, PA, was arrested on August 12 for making violent threats against the FBI on Gab. While the threats appear to be in response to the FBI search of Mar-A-Lago, there is no evidence that Bies is an extreme supporter of former president Trump. Bies, who has expressed strong anti-government and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments, does echo some QAnon rhetoric, claiming, for instance, that members of the federal government are &ldquo…

Islamist extremists online are taking note of three new English language publications—two linked to Al Qaeda and one from ISIS. All three magazines are positioned to fill the void left by the dissolution of Al Qaeda’s notorious Inspire magazine.   Founded by American jihadist Anwar al Awlaki, Inspire quickly gained the attention of Islamist extremists and the researchers who monitor them. The first English-language, Western-focused jihadist magazine, Inspire included…