January 24, 2018 Paul Nehlen, a Wisconsin Republican who hopes to unseat House Speaker Paul Ryan, is increasingly spewing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and unapologetically racist jargon from his official Twitter account and on white supremacist podcasts. Nehlen, a businessman with no political experience, ran unsuccessfully against Ryan in 2016. This year, he initially set out to woo right-of-center Republicans with an “America First” campaign, but appears to have tacked…

January 22, 2018  <img src="/sites/default/files/2018-01/Fantasy%20Homlands_0.png?itok=gZsbGhKM" alt="Fantasy homelands"/>   Jackman, Maine, population 862, touts itself as “a recreational and forestry-based community that prides itself on being both a tourist friendly community and a great region that helps create your next vacation memories.” Recently fired town manager Tom Kawczynski has a very different vision. According to his GAB (social media)…

December 19, 2017 Following Monday's implementation of new safety rules on Twitter, a number of users associated with white supremacy and other hateful ideologies found themselves no longer allowed on the platform. "ADL commends Twitter for taking these significant steps to tackle hate on their platform. We long urged Twitter to push back against hateful and violent rhetoric, and these latest actions are encouraging," CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. …

December 07, 2017 Updated: December 18, 2017 Editor's Note: Christian Picciolini and ADL's work battling extremism was featured on Sunday, Dec. 17 on 60 Minutes on CBS. As the one-time leader of one of the most infamous white supremacist groups in America, Christian Picciolini was once so immersed in the hate movement that his name appeared prominently in an ADL report on neo-Nazi activity in Illinois. Picciolini had swastika and racist tattoos on his arms and led a small empire…

December 01, 2017 Thursday’s acquittal of undocumented immigrant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate in the 2015 murder of Kathryn (Kate) Steinle has sparked an outcry from white supremacists and other extremists. Zarate claims he unintentionally killed Steinle when a stolen gun he was carrying went off accidentally. While a San Francisco jury agreed with this assessment, right-wing extremists are framing the acquittal as a symptom of multiculturalism, blaming Jews and non-whites for the…

November 29, 2017 This backgrounder is based on information from Hope Not Hate, an organization based in London: http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/ Origins of Britain First Britain First (BF) is a far-right, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant group founded in 2011 by former members of the British National Party (BNP), a far-right political party with ties to neo-Nazis.  The group is estimated to have about a thousand members. Britain First was founded by Jim Dowson and Paul Golding in…

November 29, 2017 President Donald Trump retweeted three violent, anti-Muslim videos Wednesday. It is just the latest illustration of how the president bolsters and amplifies the messages of extremists and other purveyors of hate. Trump retweeted the videos from the account of Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, a far right extremist anti-Muslim group with ties to the British National Party, a racist, anti-minority neo-Fascist group. Such extremist propaganda is one of…

November 27, 2017 By Mark Pitcavage, Senior Research Fellow for the Center on Extremism Many subjects are difficult to report on, but extremist and fringe movements are particularly difficult landscapes for journalists to navigate, strewn with rough terrain and the occasional landmine. As someone who has monitored right-wing extremism for more than two decades, I’ve had the pleasure of reading many fine works of journalism on extremist-related subjects, but I’ve also seen…

November 17, 2017 Since it began losing territory in Iraq and Syria last year, the Islamic State has shifted its propaganda away from rapturous rhetoric describing sweeping conquests across the region to more muted language urging its followers not to lose hope, and to embrace its last best chance for relevance: lone wolf attacks in the West. Islamic State’s reputation as a notorious terrorist organization is one of the few things that remains after the territorial losses…

November 16, 2017 A few days before the 22nd anniversary of the Million Man March/Holy Day of Atonement, NOI’s leader, Louis Farrakhan tweeted: “Black People: We should be more convinced that it is time for us to separate and build a nation of our own.” Farrakhan’s pronouncement, which was echoed in his anniversary speech, “Separation or Death,” was retweeted nearly 2.9K times, a number that included alt-right leaders Richard Spencer and Mike Enoch, as…

October 20, 2017 Three Texas men are currently in jail in Alachua County, Florida on charges of attempted homicide for their roles in an altercation following Richard Spencer’s speech at the University of Florida in Gainesville yesterday. The three men allegedly yelled, “Heil Hitler,” while driving by a group standing near a bus stop, leading to an altercation in which one of them, Tyler Tenbrink, reportedly fired a gun. All three men, William Fears, Colton Fears, and…