Research & Analysis

February 17, 2021 It’s been more than a month since a horde of extremists forced their way into the U.S. Capitol, protesting the outcome of a national election and intent on disrupting a time-honored democratic process. At least five people died during the violent attack, including one Capitol Police officer. ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) has identified 212 of the roughly 800 individuals who are believed to have breached the building on January 6. The emerging snapshot…

February 12, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Google's YouTube is still recommending extremist and white supremacist videos to viewers already susceptible to racial hatred, a new report from ADL found. Iranian schools are teaching antisemitism, hatred and conspiratorial material in their textbooks, according to a comprehensive analysis by ADL. Police in Spokane, WA are looking for the person who painted swastikas on the Temple Beth Shalom building and a Holocaust memorial. Read on for more…

February 05, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 In the aftermath of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, ADL launched PROTECT -- a “whole of society” offensive, comprising federal and state governments and the tech sector, to combat domestic terrorism. A senior State Department official announced that the Biden administration “embraces and champions” an internationally recognized definition of antisemitism. Despite urging from ADL, civil rights activists and…

February 02, 2021 During the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a violent mob of extremist Trump supporters—reinforced by a broad coalition of right-wing extremists—attacked police, who appeared to be caught unprepared for a violent encounter with a crowd that has been loudly and consistently supportive of law enforcement. The siege left roughly 140 officers injured, including U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, whose injuries were fatal. One of the insurgents,…

February 01, 2021 Users across social media platforms evoked antisemitism during and in the wake of the GameStop incident that took place at the end of January 2021. (photo source: Twitter) During the final week of January 2021, beleaguered retailer GameStop’s stock was driven to astronomical new highs when posters on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit launched a buying frenzy -- ostensibly aimed at soaking the Wall Street hedge funds that had shorted the stock for profit. As the…

January 29, 2021 Caption: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Photo credit: Samuel Corum/Getty Images In the weeks before and after the inauguration of President Biden, public officials nationwide have come under attack, with politicians and their families receiving death threats and violently worded texts. Offices have been vandalized, and private residences have been targeted by harassment online and by phone.  This seething anger…

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 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 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…