Research: US-based hate groups are using platforms like Stripe, PayPal, Facebook, and Amazon to raise funds, even though some have policies against hate groups
even when those companies have policies against hate groups https://www.nbcnews.com/... Olivia Solon / @oliviasolon : The research, by the @isdglobal and @DisinfoIndex builds on previous efforts by @ADL @EXPOSEDbyCMD @splcenter and @ColorOfChange. It shows that there's still a lot of work to do. https://www.nbcnews.com/... Olivia Solon / @oliviasolon : “These types of people have always existed in the sidelines of our society. But they have only been able to grow because they've had the help of mainstream social media and technology platforms” @nandoodles https://www.nbcnews.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
The financing cat-and-mouse has been running for years: after being pushed off mainstream crowdfunding sites, hate groups built their own financing platforms, and a 2019 investigation found 151 tech companies still supplying hosting, DNS, or CDN services to hate-spreading sites. The new ISD and DisinfoIndex research extends that pattern to the money layer itself — Stripe, PayPal, Facebook, and Amazon all host hate-group fundraising despite anti-hate policies, echoing the earlier finding that ~38 SPLC-designated entities paid Facebook roughly $1.6M for sponsored ads.
What makes this round different is who did the work: the study builds on tracking by the ADL, SPLC, Color of Change, and EXPOSEDbyCMD, turning scattered takedowns — like when Square, Chase, and PayPal cut off 1776.shop — into a documented, cross-platform pattern that names the processors as well as the publishers.
First-order effects
- Stripe, PayPal, Facebook, and Amazon now face documented evidence that their own anti-hate policies are not enforced against fundraisers, putting each in the position of either acting case-by-case (as PayPal did with 1776.shop) or defending a visible gap.
- The advocacy coalition behind the research — ADL, SPLC, Color of Change, EXPOSEDbyCMD — gains a consolidated evidentiary base to press specific companies rather than chasing individual storefronts.
Second-order effects
- Enforcement that stays reactive risks repeating the 2017 dynamic: pushed-off groups migrate to self-built financing platforms, so each high-profile cutoff strengthens the parallel-funding ecosystem it targets.
- Payment processors become the next battleground after hosting and ads — the same companies named in the 151-company infrastructure investigation now face scrutiny at the transaction layer, where cutting service is more decisive than removing a post.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, accountability shifts toward what amounts to distribution-layer liability: platforms judged not only on the speech they host but on the payments, ads, and infrastructure they enable, forcing governance systems that work uniformly across those layers.
- Sustained researcher-and-NGO auditing becomes a standing enforcement mechanism alongside company trust-and-safety teams — external reports, not internal review, are increasingly what triggers action.
The trend: Platform governance is expanding from content moderation to the financial and infrastructure rails underneath it, with outside audits exposing the gap between stated policy and actual enforcement.