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- The Southern Poverty Law Center documented 838 hate groups in the U.S.
- While this number has dwindled from 2019, organizations are tough to quantify as they shift to online platforms.
In its new annual report, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) documented the state of hate groups in the U.S., revealing that a vast amount of extremist groups are socializing online.
The SPLC identified 838 active chapters of 320 organizations it calls hate groups within the U.S. as of 2020 — a decline from the 940 recorded chapters in 2019.
A decline in recorded groups, however, does not equate to a drop in activity.
“For three decades, we have attempted to sound the alarm about these groups, their growth and the dangers they pose,” Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the SPLC said. “It is clearer now than ever that our nation faces an increasingly dangerous threat from homegrown extremists ranging from anti-government militias to hate groups and white supremacists.”
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Having extremist and hate groups congregate on social media networks can actually be more dangerous that in-person gatherings, officials write. Anonymous individuals are able to access forums like QAnon and Boogaloo with limited barriers to entry.
Additionally, the virtual activity can often bring in a larger group of participants.
“The insurrection at the Capitol was the culmination of years of right-wing radicalization,” said Susan Corke, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project. “Most recently, it was the product of Donald Trump’s support for and encouragement of radicalized individuals and groups to buy into conspiracy theories about a ‘stolen election.’ Trump may no longer be in the White House, but the white nationalist and extremist movement he emboldened and incited to violence is not going anywhere – and may grow more dangerous to our country.”
The SPLC’s report, the “Year in Hate and Extremism,” also documented 4,900 incidents where hate groups advertised their ideologies with flyers containing extremist, racist or otherwise offensive content.
Notably, the infamous Ku Klux Klan group, which has long espoused theories of white supremacy, has consistently dwindled over the years but gave way to new modern groups such as the Proud Boys.
Still, officials note that the actual figure of white supremacists in the U.S. is hard to count, often obfuscated by online platforms.
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