Searches for these terms often spiked after high profile hate crimes, such as the attack on an El Paso Walmart, where the target of the extremist attacker was the Hispanic community.

We purchased advertising on Google that would appear when people entered search terms about extremist topics. When someone searched for those terms, the Redirect Method ads showed up at the top of the page of search results, enticing clicks that led to YouTube videos that conveyed why the extremist ideas indicated by the search terms are misguided.

For example, a Google search for “The Turner Diaries,” a novel well-known in the extremist community for its depiction of a race war, triggered an ad to be displayed saying “Proud of your heritage? What you are not being told.” The ad links to a series of short videos with comments from former extremists and other content that counters the message of The Turner Diaries.

As the project advanced, we were able to refine our ads on Google, increasing the likelihood these web searchers would watch our videos instead of extremist content.

The project leveraged our unique expertise in understanding extremists, and the findings of the Redirect Method have provided insights into the kinds of content that have the most impact on reaching and reasoning with hate-searchers before they become real-life extremists.

With Redirect Method ads seen over 175,000 times on Google, and clicked on over 4,000 times, the Redirect Method project is one way that ADL is trying to blunt the growth of extremism by reaching people curious about violent white nationalism or violent jihadism with a compelling voice of moderation.

For more about this fascinating project to keep impressionable people online off a dangerous path, read our blog post about the Redirect Method.