An investigation by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), conducted in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), alleges that Instagram's recommendation system is actively promoting accounts that sell extremist, antisemitic, and racist merchandise. According to the report, titled "Hate for Sale: How Instagram Helps Sellers of Hateful Merchandise Reach a Billion Views," these 11 accounts collectively garnered 1.5 billion views and generated an estimated $1.3 million in sales.
The study claims that Instagram's algorithm directly recommended all identified accounts to users. It further points to a sharp rise in visibility-nearly a fourfold (3.75x) increase in views-for Nazi-themed and racist "hate merch" following Meta's decision earlier this year to scale back certain content moderation policies.
Examples of the promoted content include posts glorifying Nazis, denying the Holocaust, demonizing Jewish people, mocking George Floyd's death, joking about slavery, and selling items like T-shirts bearing slogans such as "Life is a race. Be a racist." The report also highlights the use of AI-generated hateful imagery, which Meta allegedly fails to label consistently.
Two accounts reportedly boasted tens of thousands of sales, with estimated revenues of $839,700 and $499,750, respectively. These online stores were hosted on e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Wix, and Payhip. After being notified by CCDH, Wix and Payhip removed the offending merchandise, while Shopify's response was not detailed in the report.
Imran Ahmed, CEO of CCDH, stated: "Instagram helps extremists make money out of antisemitism and racism. By withdrawing critical safeguards, Meta has allowed hate to flourish. Extremist content is promoted and monetized by their algorithms. Every time someone buys a shirt from one of these hate merchants, it funds more propaganda."
Eric D. Fingerhut, President and CEO of JFNA, emphasized the broader implications: "Social media has played an outsize role in spreading hate and 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."