Throughout 2024, the ADL Center on Extremism documented the tactics deployed by extremists and purveyors of hate to promote false narratives, as well as the harmful impact of conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation on communities including Jews, immigrants and other marginalized groups. Predicting how extremists may weaponize false narratives requires an understanding of the strategies that allow them to spread most effectively. Here, we highlight three key mis-…

While much of the world welcomed the prospect of a pause in hostilities and the release of hostages following news of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in mid-January, leading voices in the U.S. anti-Zionist movement responded by doubling down on extreme and inflammatory positions and support for violent action. In online statements and at on-the-ground rallies in the days following the deal — which was announced on January 15, 2025, and officially began with a multiphase…

On January 22, 2025, a 17-year-old student opened fire inside the cafeteria at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee. The shooter killed one student and injured another before taking his own life.  Preliminary research by the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) found the shooter, who was Black, was fueled by violent misanthropic views, anti-Black hate and hateful extremist beliefs including inceldom and antisemitism. He subscribed to broad accelerationist beliefs, which hold…

On January 13, 2025, the United States Department of State designated the Terrorgram Collective and three of its foreign leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), formally including Terrorgram among other international terrorist groups.   Terrorgram is a decentralized network of white supremacist, neo-Nazi and accelerationist groups and individuals connected primarily through the encrypted social networking app Telegram, with the collective goal of promoting stochastic…

As devastating wildfires continue to decimate sections of Los Angeles, California, extremists and conspiracy theorists are spreading familiar falsehoods, blaming the blaze on common scapegoats such as diversity initiatives, Jews and nefarious government “false flags.” Fires that began in the Pacific Palisades area on January 7, 2025, are now part of a broader set of blazes across the city. Officials believe the fires were caused primarily by drought conditions, high winds and the…

The deadly New Year’s attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, left a city reeling and social media awash in hateful lies and conspiracy theories about immigrants, Israel and a government cover-up.   In the early morning of January 1, 2025, 42-year-old Houston, Texas resident Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove his car into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, killing at least fourteen people and injuring dozens more before he was shot and killed by police. While law enforcement is still…

Unity of Fields (UoF), formerly Palestine Action U.S., is a radical far-left, anti-Zionist “direct action network” that engages in calls for violence against those it considers supportive of Israel or Zionism, or “complicit” in Israel’s alleged actions, and promotes aggressive, targeted protests and the defacement of property belonging to Jewish and non-Jewish organizations and individuals. In May 2025, Unity of Fields appeared to justify the…

January 2, 2025, Update: In the month since this article was originally published, at least two more Islamist-related terror incidents have occurred in the United States, including the deadly vehicular attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, on New Year’s Day 2025, which killed 14 people and wounded dozens more. The New Orleans incident was the deadliest Islamist terror attack in the United States since the 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which killed 49 people. Islamist…

Welcome to extremely™, a weekly newsletter from the ADL Center on Extremism and your go-to resource for emerging trends and developments in extremism and hate. In This Week's NewsletterAntisemitism is a Unifying Thread in Extremist Violence    A gunman opened fire in Montreal's Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood on June 22, killing two people and injuring another before he was killed by law enforcement. The shooter, identified by law enforcement as a 25-year-old Canadian…