April 21, 2021 Screenshot: ABC News Extremists consistently use mainstream news stories as opportunities to share their racist, often violent, views on a range of social media and online platforms. The April 20, 2021 verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial was no exception. Chauvin was found guilty on all three charges in the May 2020 murder of George Floyd. Note: Many of the comments documented in this piece include racist, violent and otherwise disturbing language. Prior to the…

April 21, 2021 Burt Colucci speaks during private NSM gathering on April 16, 2021 UPDATE: On January 4, 2022, the Maricopa County Attorney’s office indicted Colucci on two counts of misdemeanor disorderly conduct and one count of felony disorderly conduct. On April 19, 2021, police in Chandler, Arizona, arrested the leader of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM), Burt Colucci of Kissimmee, Florida, for aggravated assault after he allegedly pointed a handgun at a Black…

April 16, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 The former police officer who was recorded on camera fatally shooting Daunte Wright during a traffic stop was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday. ADL called on Fox News to remove primetime opinion host Tucker Carlson after he openly embraced a white supremacist conspiracy theory in front of millions of viewers. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a watered-down hate crimes bill into law this week, one that ADL and other…

April 14, 2021 Don’t talk to strangers. It’s a rule that some parents teach their children from a young age. But there’s one website that encourages users to do just that, and it’s growing increasingly popular among tweens and teens. It is being used in ways that young people and their families should learn more about. Created in 2009, Omegle is a free website that randomly pairs users in one-on-one video chat sessions. The site has seen a resurgence over the past year,…

April 09, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Cameron Shea, a 25-year-old leader of the neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen, pleaded guilty to threatening journalists and activists with Nazi posters and menacing messages. Coronavirus lockdowns last year shifted some antisemitic hatred online, where conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic’s medical and economic devastation abounded, researchers reported. The Arkansas Senate on Wednesday approved a stripped-down hate crimes bill…

April 06, 2021 The best-known images from the January 6 rally and assault on the U.S. Capitol largely feature men, decked out in camouflage, MAGA hats and QAnon paraphernalia. But women made up about 14 percent of those who have been charged in relation to activity that day. This is an unusually high number of women for a right-wing extremist event, which is attributable at least in part to the high concentration of QAnon supporters at the January 6 events, and to the significant number of…

March 31, 2021 4.12.21 UPDATE:   The White Lives Matter marches that took place on Sunday, April 11 were very sparsely attended. Counter-protesters made up the majority of attendees -- and in some cases were the only attendees.  Huntington Beach saw the largest rally, with around 10 WLM marchers, some bearing extremist symbols and others with various right-wing flags, and 500 counter-protesters at its peak before being…

March 31, 2021 The American Jewish community continues to face significant fear and anxiety from the threat of antisemitic or other hateful attacks and harassment. Following up on our 2020 survey results, we asked Jewish Americans to tell us about their experiences online and off with antisemitism. Their responses indicate that antisemitism still is very much a part of Jewish Americans’ lives. Antisemitic experiences Well over half (63 percent) of Jews in America have either…

March 25, 2021 UPDATE: According to the TruNews website, the channel was banned from Facebook on April 3, 2021, and the TruNews page has been removed from the platform.  In early 2020, ADL wrote about TruNews and its host and founder, Rick Wiles, detailing the fundamentalist Christian video streaming site’s consistently antisemitic, anti-Zionist, anti-LGBTQ+ and Islamophobic rhetoric. In July 2020, a follow-up piece focused on TruNews’ use of…

March 09, 2021 Extremist movements pose many problems to society, from spreading hate and intolerance to engaging in significant and deadly violence.  It is particularly problematic when adherents of extreme causes are able to persist in key institutions dedicated to protecting the people of the United States, institutions such as emergency response units, law enforcement and the military. Of these institutions, the U.S. military is the largest, with more than two million active duty…

March 05, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 U.S. House leaders canceled Thursday’s legislative session and rescheduled morning votes after police officials warned of a possible plot by a militia group to storm Capitol Hill. A suspect ADL identified as an alleged white supremacist was arrested after the FBI raided the Florida home he was renting after moving from New Jersey. Jewish groups called for an investigation into allegations that a Frontier Airlines flight crew made antisemitic…

March 03, 2021 In early March 2021, the FBI arrested white supremacist accelerationist Paul N. Miller on three federal weapon charges. The FBI arrested Miller at his home in Fort Lauderdale following a federal indictment of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm in 2018. Two additional weapons charges followed, after the FBI searched Miller’s apartment and found ammunition and a short-barreled rifle. In June 2021, Miller pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm,…

February 26, 2021 Young Pharaoh, whose real name is Marshall Daniels, is an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who promotes racist theories about the superiority of Black people. He has also touted QAnon conspiracy theories, including Pizzagate and Frazzledrip (which accuses high profile Democrats of cutting a child’s face off and wearing it like a mask in a Satanic ritual) and uses popular QAnon hashtags. In 2021, he was invited and then disinvited from speaking at the annual CPAC…

February 26, 2021 As of February 25, 2021, more than 30 virtual events celebrating Black History Month have been disrupted by racist Zoombombing attacks. Zoombombing first gained attention nearly a year ago, during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as extremists and anonymous online trolls took advantage of the new reliance on virtual conferencing technology by disrupting a wide range of events, often targeting marginalized communities. In this most recent spate of virtual…

February 22, 2021 On February 5, 2021, the FBI arrested Christian Michael Mackey, an alleged member of neo-Nazi  group Iron Youth, on charges of an unlawful sale of a firearm. Mackey allegedly attempted to sell his gun to someone identified to him as a known felon, but Mackey seemed primarily concerned that the buyer was “based”— which in this case means that he subscribes to white supremacist beliefs. According to the affidavit, Mackey allegedly incited others in an…