TTP Report: White Supremacists on X Premium Use Israel-Hamas Conflict to Push Hate Agenda
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov 16, 2023
Contact: Michael Clauw, mclauw@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign for Accountability (CfA) a nonprofit watchdog group that runs the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), released a report that shows how white supremacists with X Premium accounts are seizing on the Israel-Hamas conflict to amplify antisemitism, Islamophobia, and broader anti-immigrant hate narratives on the platform. Many of these posts violate X’s own hate speech policies, but the posts and accounts identified by TTP remain active on the platform and eligible for X Premium perks. This comes at a time when officials and experts have warned about historic levels of antisemitism and spiking rates of anti-Muslim bias in the U.S.
CfA Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said, “The events of the past month have thrust the re-emergence of white supremacist accounts under the new X regime into the spotlight like never before. These extremists, now armed with official-looking blue checkmarks, are trying to exploit the attention directed at the Israel-Hamas conflict to drive interest in their own hateful agendas—and X’s Premium tools may be helping them do it.”
For this study, TTP compiled a set of terms commonly used by white supremacists to find each other online, typed each term into the search bar on X, and examined accounts in the “people” tab that featured a X Premium blue checkmark. Researchers then confirmed whether the accounts are linked to white supremacist ideology, examined their posts related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, and determined if the posts violated X policies on hate speech.
TTP found multiple X Premium accounts tying the Israel-Hamas conflict to the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which sees a plot to systematically replace white-majority populations with non-white immigrants. One of the accounts, @UltraPatriot44, regularly posts comments about both Muslims and Jews that violate X’s hateful conduct policy. At one point the account even attempted to use the conflict as a recruiting tool, calling for people to join “Active Clubs,” a network of white supremacist fight clubs.
Another X Premium account called MAKE EUROPA SNOW—which has more than 19,000 followers, condemns race mixing, and warns about “white genocide”—has pushed Great Replacement ideas in the context of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Multiple conspiracy-laced comments appeared to violate X’s policy against “inciting fear or spreading fearful stereotypes about a protected category.”
TTP also identified multiple X Premium accounts posting Islamophobic comments related to the Israel-Hamas conflict which appear to violate a number of aspects of X’s hateful conduct policy. One post by X Premium account @MartinezPolitix referred to Muslims as “animals”—clearly violating the section which explicitly prohibits “dehumanization.” Another X Premium account posted that Gazans want to “colonize and islamize [sic] Europe,” appearing to violate the policy against “inciting fear or spreading fearful stereotypes about a protected category.”
TTP also found several X Premium accounts linked to the “Groyper Army”—the name for supporters of white supremacist podcaster Nick Fuentes—making antisemitic posts related to the conflict. Another one of these accounts, @groypergreen07, commented on a post by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, writing, “All the Jews are hyperbolizing this war’s atrocities like they did with the fictional Holocaust.”
Ms. Kuppersmith continued, “We’re seeing white supremacists use their X Premium accounts to spread hateful ideologies like never before. Sadly, the platform’s announcement of new subscription tiers means these Premium subscribers stand to gain even more visibility and power to spread hate.”
Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.