If it feels as though white supremacists are coming out of the woodwork everywhere these days, particularly on social media, you’re not alone—and it’s not a figment of your imagination. On Facebook particularly, they are thriving, organizing, and recruiting, and it’s unlikely to slow down anytime soon.
A report this week from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) examining the numbers of designated hate groups with a presence on Facebook turned up some disturbing results. Foremost among them: Over half of the 221 organizations identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as hate groups have a continuing and active presence on Facebook, with even previously banned outfits managing to worm their way back onto the platform.
The trend, as the report’s authors explain, is acutely worrying in the midst of a pandemic that is enabling or requiring millions of people to spend most of their time online—which is where nearly all white supremacist organizing and recruitment now occurs.
“With millions of people now quarantining at home and vulnerable to ideologies that seek to exploit people’s fears and resentments about COVID-19, Facebook’s failure to remove white supremacist groups could give these organizations fertile new ground to attract followers,” the report observes.
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