ADL Articles

January 22, 2021 Photo Credit: Ted S. Warren/AP Photo Less than one week after President Biden’s inauguration, followers of QAnon—the sprawling, largely incoherent conspiracy theory that has infected not only American discourse but corners of the Republican Party—are struggling to hold onto the conspiracy theory in a post-Trump world. QAnon is tightly tethered to the existence of a Trump presidency, as it cast the former president as the ultimate hero who would use…

January 22, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Amid unprecedented security concerns, due in large part to the Capitol Hill riot two weeks earlier, Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States and Kamala Harris became the first woman and first woman of color to hold the office of Vice President. President Biden issued an executive order ending Trump’s travel ban on noncitizens from 13 countries. Prosecutors filed the first significant conspiracy charge in the U.S. Capitol…

January 19, 2021 The day after the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, ADL called on Twitter to suspend QAnon-supporting accounts because they promoted violence, undermined democracy, and spread misinformation. QAnon, an antisemitic global conspiracy claiming that pedophile rings control world governments, including the United States, played a key role in the assault. On January 8, a day after ADL made its demand, Twitter suspended the accounts of prominent QAnon supporters…

January 18, 2021 Photo credit: Stephanie Keith / Reuters One year before the January 6, 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol building, more than 20,000 mostly armed people gathered 97 miles away outside the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond for the Virginia Citizen Defense League’s (VCDL) Lobby Day. The event, held on January 20, 2020, allowed protesters to express their anger over newly elected Virginia Democrats’ reported plans to pursue stricter gun control legislation…

January 15, 2021 Ashli Babbitt, the Trump supporter and QAnon follower killed during the Capitol siege, has quickly become a celebrated martyr for many on the far right. The symbolic weight of her death in the seat of the national government was immediately evident, and right-wing accounts on platforms such as MeWe, Minds, Rumble, and Telegram moved quickly to memorialize Babbitt in posts calling for “justice,” and demonizing the government and law enforcement. While some posts…

January 15, 2021 We live more and more in digital spaces, so we have to work harder to distinguish protected online speech from unprotected online conduct. In the wake of the attack at the U.S. Capitol on January 6—an attack that was planned, mobilized and livestreamed online—this work has gained an even greater sense of urgency, especially when it comes to doxing.   Many people define doxing as posting someone’s personal information online. But doxing as a blanket…

January 15, 2021 A livestream video shot by a newly-elected West Virginia lawmaker shows a disturbing gap between what a mob of Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol thought about the events of January 6 and what the rest of the world actually saw. Derrick Evans, a freshman member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, viewed fellow rioters swarming around him and forcing entry into the Capitol as a celebration. He was visibly giddy. But for horror-struck viewers, it was a violent…

January 15, 2021 On January 10, 2021, Nation of Islam (NOI) Student Minister Dr. Wesley Muhammad provided the latest example in the group’s long history of virulent antisemitism. Muhammad delivered a two-hour sermon, broadcast live from NOI’s national headquarters in Chicago, in which he explicitly and repeatedly blamed Jews and Israel for the coronavirus pandemic. As of January 14, his sermon, titled “Beyond Tuskegee: Why Black People Must Not Take the Experimental COVID-19…

January 15, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 The FBI is warning of plans for armed protests at all 50 state capitals and in Washington, D.C., in the days leading up to President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, stoking fears of more violence after last week’s deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol. ADL is calling for the Department of Justice and the FBI to investigate Gab, a conservative social media company, and its CEO over allegations that they may have "intentionally aided, conspired…

January 13, 2021 Source: Telegram In the immediate aftermath of the November 2020 presidential election, pro-Trump and other extremists announced their initial plans to protest President-Elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in Washington D.C. Those calls for largescale protests on or around January 20 attracted renewed interest following the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, with threats of additional extremist violence circulating on numerous online platforms. While it is…

January 13, 2021 In the wake of the January 6, 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol, Americans are understandably worried about extremism and political violence. They want to know how bad things are, and how bad they might get. The bottom line: Although we should not panic, there’s also no excuse for ignoring an extremist threat that appears to have significant staying power. In other words, we all need to focus on the long game. The anger and vitriol we saw on January 6 will not…

January 10, 2021 Screenshot of Parler logo as the site struggles to load during Sunday’s heavy traffic Parler, the social media site frequented and promoted by a range of conservatives and right-wing extremists, is expected to be taken offline Sunday night, after Amazon Web Services announced the platform had violated its terms of service. This follows news that Apple app store and Google Play had suspended Parler. Ahead of the shutdown, Trump surrogates and a range of…

January 08, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Insurrectionists and far-right extremists encouraged by President Trump violently forced entry into the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday in an attempt to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. In an unprecedented move, Twitter and Facebook suspended the accounts of Mr. Trump as his supporters stormed the Capitol, fearing his posts could incite further violence. A newly sworn-in Republican congresswoman declared that …

January 08, 2021 Photo credit: Associated Press Since the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, some technology companies have taken additional steps to crack down on the dissemination of hate and violent conspiracy theories. This includes indefinite bans of many of Donald Trump’s social media accounts and Shopify ceasing its sale of merchandise from the Trump Organization. However, many tech companies continue to play a significant role in spreading the hate and…

January 08, 2021 On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, pro-Trump extremists, including some identified right-wing extremists, stormed the U.S. Capitol building, interrupting the Congressional session affirming the election results and forcing a partial evacuation. The nation and the world watched the chaos unfold, including scenes of the mob on the Senate floor, in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, and swarming the Capitol steps. By the time the siege ended, four people were dead: three from…

January 07, 2021   Manifestantes dentro del Capitolio de EE.UU, uno de ellos con una camisa que dice  “Campamento Auschwitz” — Fuente: ITV news A pocas horas de que extremistas pro-Trump irrumpieron en el edificio del Capitolio de los EE.UU., ideólogos, activistas y adeptos a las teorías de conspiración antisemitas intentaron implicar a los judíos y a los sionistas en la violencia. Aunque estos antisemitas tienen una variedad de…

January 07, 2021 Protestors—one wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt—inside the U.S. Capitol building. Photo credit: ITV news In the hours since pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol building, antisemitic ideologues, activists and conspiracy theorists have attempted to implicate Jews and Zionists in the violence. Although these antisemites have a range of opinions about President Trump, many were united in their belief that the events of Wednesday,…

January 07, 2021 The invasion of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 by pro-Trump extremists forced a suspension of the Joint Session of Congress certifying the results of the 2020 election and necessitated the evacuation of elected officials and staff.  Security preparations for the certification were likely developed and implemented with the knowledge that state capitols have been a frequent target of extremists throughout 2020.  Why these preparations failed so dramatically…