A new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), released today in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America, shows that the social media platform Instagram is algorithmically promoting accounts that sell extremist, antisemitic and racist merchandise, helping them reach 1.5 billion views and generate over $1.3 million in estimated sales. 
 

The report, “Hate for Sale: How Instagram Helps Sellers of Hateful Merchandise Reach a Billion Views,” provides evidence that Meta’s rollback of key content moderation policies earlier this year was followed by a nearly fourfold increase in views on accounts pushing Nazi-themed and racist “hate merch.” All 11 accounts identified were recommended by Instagram’s own algorithm. 
 

"When it comes to spreading hate and antisemitism, we know that social media has played an outsize role, which is why the Jewish community has made addressing this issue a plank of our six-point plan to combat antisemitism. This report is an important reminder that social media companies can and should be doing a lot more to enforce their rules and keep our communities safer," said Jewish Federations President and CEO Eric D. Fingerhut.
 

Key findings from the report include: 
 

• 1.5 billion views across 11 accounts that promote and sell hate merchandise 
• A 3.75x increase in views after Meta weakened hate speech enforcement 
• Posts mocking George Floyd’s death, glorifying Nazis, and selling t-shirts with slogans like “Life is a race. Be a racist” 
• At least two accounts boasting tens of thousands of sales, with estimated revenues of $839,700 and $499,750 respectively 
• Use of AI-generated hate content, which Meta is failing to consistently label as AI 

“Instagram helps extremists make money out of antisemitism and racism,” said Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH. “By withdrawing critical safeguards, Meta has allowed hate to flourish. Extremist content, including posts that glorify Nazis, spread Holocaust denial, demonize Jewish people, and joke about slavery, is promoted and monetized by their algorithms. Every time someone buys a shirt from one of these hate merchants, it funds more propaganda, and it stains the reputation of every company that enabled the sale.” 
 

The report also shows how leading e-commerce platforms—Shopify, Wix, and Payhip—hosted these online stores. CCDH contacted the companies to alert them to the “hate merch” sold on their platforms. Wix and Payhip replied, saying they made the independent decision to remove the identified merchandise.