A new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a social media watchdog, explains how Instagram is helping fuel the sale of merchandise promoting hate speech.
The report, released this week, was conducted in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America, a conglomerate of pro-Jewish advocacy groups. It said it examined 11 Instagram accounts “openly selling antisemitic ‘hate merch’ on e-commerce systems such as Shopify, Wix, and Payhip that collectively drew 1.5 billion views.” The report specifically homes in on graphic T-shirts with racist and antisemitic imagery.
“This content glorifies Nazis and their antisemitism, demonizes African Americans, and spreads antisemitic conspiracies that are being rewarded and monetized,” the report says. “And it’s raking in substantial amounts of money. One account links to a web store claiming 30,000 fulfilled orders estimated at $839,700 in sales. Another online site reports 25,000 sales earning approximately $499,750.”
The report includes images of T-shirts promoting Adolf Hitler, antisemitic tropes and the enslavement of Black people, among a host of other blatantly bigoted examples. And Instagram and Facebook owner Meta’s MAGA-friendly choice earlier this year to roll back measures designed to curb the spread of hate speech and disinformation appears to have been a boon for these accounts.
“Since Meta’s recent rollback of key safeguards, the views of these accounts have nearly quadrupled, jumping from 220 million to 826 million over six months,” the report says.
Meta platforms’ tendency to promote extremist content to users around the world has been in focus for some time now. A year ago, for example, I wrote about a report out of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue that laid out how wellness-focused Instagram accounts were steering users toward extremist influencers. Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said in a statement this week that Instagram is helping line hatemongers’ pockets.
“Instagram helps extremists make money out of antisemitism and racism,” he said. “By withdrawing critical safeguards, Meta has allowed hate to flourish.”
Meta did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.