Extremist Content Online: CEP Continues To Locate Extremist Content On YouTube

(New York, N.Y.) — The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) reports weekly on the methods used by extremists to exploit the Internet and social media platforms to recruit followers and incite violence. Last week, CEP researchers found neo-Nazi content on YouTube, including an electronic music track promoting a white supremacist clothing brand and a propaganda video made by the neo-Nazi Nationalist Social Club where members sought to provoke confrontations and intimidate attendees at a drag queen story hour event.

On Facebook, CEP located 13 different accounts that posted propaganda related to various extremist groups and ideologies. A white supremacist t-shirt store on a print-on-demand platform was discovered and removed promptly after being reported by CEP. Finally, a user shared a link for blueprints for building homemade firearms on a dark web imageboard that supports acts of white supremacist terrorism.

YouTube Video Promoting White Supremacist Clothing Brand Located

CEP researchers located an electronic music track on YouTube promoting a white supremacist clothing brand linked to the active club movement, the successor to the Rise Above Movement. The song, made by an established neo-Nazi musician, was uploaded to YouTube on July 14 and had over 370 views two weeks later. An advertisement played before the video. The YouTube link was shared by multiple Telegram channels, including several connected to the clothing brand. CEP reported the video to YouTube on July 29, but it was still accessible three days later.

Propaganda Video Showing Neo-Nazi Group Protesting And Seeking to Intimidate Attendees of Drag Queen Story Hour Released, Located on YouTube and Facebook

On July 26, the neo-Nazi group Nationalist Social Club (NSC) released a propaganda video that showed its members protesting a drag queen story hour event at a museum in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston and attempting to intimidate event attendees and provoke confrontations. The footage showed NSC members holding a banner, anti-LGBTQ, especially anti-trans leaflets, and giving Nazi salutes. News reports stated that the group yelled anti-LGBTQ statements and attempted to provoke counter-protesters. The propaganda video also showed an NSC member fighting with an anti-fascist activist and being taken into custody by law enforcement. NSC’s founder, Chris Hood, was arrested at the event and charged with fighting in a public place. The propaganda video pledged that the group would try to shut down future drag queen story hour events in New England and included the group’s contact information and propaganda accounts on Telegram, Gab, and other social media sites. In addition to approximately two dozen Telegram channels, Gab, and Odysee, CEP located the video on YouTube and Facebook. Neither YouTube nor Facebook removed the video after CEP reported it.

Pro-ISIS, Pro-TTP, Neo-Nazi Content Located on Facebook

CEP researchers located ten accounts that posted ISIS and pro-ISIS propaganda, one account that posted pro-Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) content, and two pages that promoted neo-Nazism in a sample of Facebook content taken on July 27. Pro-ISIS profiles posted full-length ISIS propaganda videos, clips from longer videos, including footage showing casualties from ISIS attacks, unofficial videos supporting ISIS, photos taken from propaganda videos, and ISIS audio files. One account used an image taken from a notoriously brutal ISIS video from 2016 as its profile photo. Three accounts had an undisclosed number of friends or followers. The other seven accounts had a range of 188 to 3,700 friends, with an average of 1,195.

In addition to the ten pro-ISIS accounts, CEP located an account that celebrated the killing of Pakistani police officers and posted videos from the TTP propaganda outlet Umar Media. Two pages were also found that posted neo-Nazi propaganda. With over 400 followers, the first page, a propaganda outlet, posted a recent video made by the Nationalist Social Club (NSC) and social media and contact information for the group. The post indicated support for NSC’s actions. The second page, with over 900 followers, belonged to a neo-Nazi record label and advertised the sale of t-shirts with neo-Nazi symbols such as black suns/sonnenrads and swastikas. The uploader partially covered some of the swastika imagery to avoid removal from Facebook. 

CEP reported all thirteen accounts to Facebook on July 27. Within five days, two of the thirteen accounts were removed: the pro-TTP account and a pro-ISIS account that posted a clip from an ISIS propaganda video that showed combat casualties.

White Supremacist T-Shirt Store Removed From Spring Platform

On July 25, CEP reported white supremacist t-shirts to the print-on-demand platform Spring. The platform removed the store that sold the shirts in approximately two hours for violating the site’s Acceptable Use Policy. The reported shirts contained slogans and imagery used by various white supremacist movements. A Telegram channel affiliated with the since removed store has posted a large quantity of racist, anti-Muslim, and antisemitic content and has praised various neo-Nazis such as William Luther Pierce.

White supremacist products were removed from Spring on July 25 after CEP reported them.

Dark Web White Supremacist Imageboard Shares Information on Building Homemade Firearms

On July 24, a user of a white supremacist imageboard on the dark web that endorses acts of terrorism shared a link for a website that contains blueprints for building homemade shotguns and sells kits in the U.S. containing craft made firearms parts. The imageboard poster stated that shotgun shells were easier to make or acquire than rifle or pistol ammunition and that they could send the blueprint files.

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