A recent investigation by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) uncovered several large-scale influencers taking advantage of Meta’s failure to enforce its content moderation rules to sell merchandise promoting antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and neo-Nazi imagery. These influencers traffic in several forms of bigotry, including anti-Black racism, anti-Arabic racism, and misogyny — all of which lead back to their storefronts which promote Nazi rhetoric and white supremacism. The hateful content allowed to fester on Instagram is shocking, as Meta continues to undergo a sweeping transformation in the company’s operations that appear to align with the Trump administration’s wish to allow more hateful content online under the banner of “free speech.”
Dylan Shane, an influencer with over 510,000 followers on Instagram, previously had a profile littered with neo-Nazi imagery such as Totenkopf (“Death’s Head”) images, SS bolts, and the Nazi Black Sun. Following GPAHE’s reporting, Meta deplatformed several of Shane’s posts featuring Nazi imagery along with his “backup” account, a common ban-evasion tactic used by so-called “edgy” content creators. On his account, Shane linked to another Instagram page called “Curb Stomp MFG,” which links to its own storefront. The online shop is filled with neo-Nazi symbolism, such as the SS lightning bolts with an American flag design, and an SS face mask. The original “curbstompmfg” is now listed as private with zero followers, but the “official backup account,” which has 12,000 followers, is still live.
Dylan Shane posts a now-deplatformed video on Instagram featuring stickers with neo-Nazi imagery, such as the SS lightning bolts, the Black Sun, and Totenkopf. (Source: Instagram).
Meta also removed videos posted by Fightback Podcast host Jake Shields featuring the Black Sun, a Nazi symbol, imposed behind an image of recently assassinated Charlie Kirk of Turning Point, USA, interview clips with neo-Nazi Paul Miller and “manosphere” influencer Amrou Fudl (“Myron Gaines”), and other anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-Black content. Gaines’ own misogynistic content remained untouched, while one video describing “Jews” as the “most problematic influence” alongside Indians from southeast Asia and Chinese people in the United States, was deleted.
Shields posts a video of Charlie Kirk discussing “secular Jews’’” supposed influence on left-wing organizations, with what appears to be a Sonnenrad in the background composed of rifles. Meta removed the video following GPAHE’s reporting. (Source: Instagram).
Meta refused to take meaningful action against Hayden McDougall (“Woman Propaganda”), who uses bigotry to monetize neo-Nazi propaganda such as the Holocaust revisionist film Europa: The Last Battle and violent crusader imagery. McDougall, who has 1.4 million followers, claims to be “Debunking the internet’s most viral feminist propaganda,” an obviously misogynistic goal, although he also traffics in anti-Black racism, anti-Arabic racism, and antisemitism. On his posts, McDougall has claimed that Mexicans should “go back to Mexico,” suggested he doesn’t feel safe around Black people, and called for women to have their rights stripped from them (“[men] should take the power back, fuck you”). None of the aforementioned videos were taken down by Meta, including one grotesquely racist clip of himself and neo-Nazi Paul Miller calling a Black person a “fa***t n****r.”
Despite Meta’s refusal to deplatform his content, McDougall posted an apparently satirical response to GPAHE’s reporting acknowledging his racism and sexism which was captioned “Unironically guys there’s a real chance I lose this Instagram account.” McDougall continues to fraternize with the far right, including a recent meet-up with “auspill” (Hugo Lennon), an Australian who spoke at the 2025 white nationalist American Renaissance conference alongside its founder, Jared Taylor.
Meta appears to selectively enforce its policy on hateful content, removing some Nazi references while leaving other forms of hatred on the platform. Unfortunately, Meta appears to be reactive rather than proactive when it comes to this content. The company did not deplatform videos with Nazi references until GPAHE reported on them, and then left violative material, such as misogynistic content advocating for the withdrawal of women’s rights, and extreme anti-Black racism such as calling for segregation, on the site. This is especially egregious given that each of these creators monetizes their bigotry by taking advantage of virality enabled by Instagram’s algorithm. This year alone, Instagram has been home to monetized neo-Nazi content by fringe accounts and viral AI-generated content promoting Holocaust denial and misogyny. With white supremacists such as Nick Fuentes continually infiltrating the mainstream, and social media companies doing little to stop it, we risk the growing acceptance of genocidal ideologies — and the violence that often accompanies them.
