The FBI is Buying Ads Under Verified pro-Nazi X Accounts To Combat Hate Crimes
Hate crime in the U.S. has been surging. The ten largest cities saw hate crimes increase 11% to 2,173 cases in 2023, per Axois.
At the center of it is X, formerly Twitter. There are in-depth studies and anecdotal evidence that the social media platform has more hate speech and harmful content than under its previous leadership team.
For example, several fringe characters that were banned under previous management have been reinstated:
- Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website
- Liz Crokin, a significant propagator of the QAnon conspiracy theory – their core belief is cannibalistic child molesters are operating a global child sex trafficking ring that conspired against Donald Trump
- Andrew Tate, a controversial online influencer facing charges of rape, human trafficking, and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women
Research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue showed that anti-Semitic tweets more than doubled on X from June 2022 to February 2023, the period following Musk’s takeover.
The FBI is now buying ads under pro-nazi accounts and content on X to seek tips on hate crimes, per NBC News. For example, NBC News saw an FBI ad among the replies to a post from @AshaLogos, a verified account with more than 54,000 followers that frequently posts anti-Semitic tweets.
While the FBI did not confirm the report, it seems that they hope people will tell on themselves before crime happens.
File this under the “you can’t make this shit up.”
