A Wednesday report by the Anti-Defamation League found white supremacist propaganda surged in 2020, finding more than 5,100 cases of racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ messages spread through various media.
Messages were spread through physical fliers, stickers, banners, and posters, almost doubling the more than 2,700 instances of propaganda reported in 2019.
“Propaganda gives white supremacists the ability to maximize media and online attention, while limiting the risk of individual exposure, negative media coverage, arrests and public backlash that often accompanies more public events,” the report read.
Propaganda was found in every state, except Hawaii, with the highest levels of messaging being found in Texas, Washington, California, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
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According to the report, at least 30 white supremacist groups “distributed propaganda.” Three groups, Patriot Front, New Jersey European Heritage Association, and the Nationalist Social Club, were behind 92% of the activity.
The ADL, which was founded more than a century ago, is a self-described anti-hate organization that began in 1913 after its founders noticed an escalation of anti-Semitism and bigotry. The organization noted in the recent report that 2020 marked the highest number of white supremacist propaganda incidents it has ever recorded.
Christian Picciolini, a former far-right extremist who founded the deradicalization group Free Radicals Project, said upticks in propaganda have to do with the opportunity to spread messaging during times of crises.
“They use the uncertainty and fear caused by crisis to win over new recruits to their ‘us vs. them’ narrative, painting the ‘other’ as the cause of their pain, grievances, or loss,” Picciolini told the Associated Press. “The current uncertainty caused by the pandemic, job loss, a heated election, protest over extrajudicial police killings of black Americans, and a national reckoning sparked by our country’s long tradition of racism has created a perfect storm in which to recruit Americans who are fearful of change and progress.”
The ADL’s report follows federal authorities investigating the events of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 that resulted in the deaths of five people, including a Capitol Police officer.
In congressional testimony last month, top security officials, including former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who resigned after the event, former House sergeant-at-arms Paul Irving, former Senate sergeant-at-arms Michael Stenger, and D.C. Metropolitan acting Police Chief Robert Contee, said there was some white supremacist activity on Jan. 6.
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Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced its plans to bring charges against at least 100 more people connected to the riot at the Capitol. So far, the department has charged more than 300 people with ties to the riot.
