Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Meta’s oversight body prepares to lay off workers

Lawsuits test Tesla claim that drivers are solely responsible for crashes   

How an inclusive gym brand became a battlefield over LGBTQ+ rights

The Rick Steves guide to life

The sad, stale state of in-flight vegetarian meals

How to train for a marathon on vacation

Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.

Eighty percent of Ukraine-Israel bill will be spent in U.S. or by U.S. military

Facts in the Trump courtroom v. ‘facts’ in the court of public opinion

Tensions grow between Trump and Lake in Arizona race for Senate 

Trump and DeSantis meet privately in Florida 

Is student loan debt an emergency? Take our quiz.

Humans might need to re-engineer the climate

The Fed’s fight against inflation needs to lose the dot plot

Where seas are rising at alarming speed 

The new face of flooding

Miss Manners: I think kindergarten graduations are ‘ridiculous’

Carolyn Hax: Is checking his phone the best way to prove he isn’t lying anymore?

Ask Amy: Boyfriend’s CPA dad did my taxes wrong for years

Soldiers reunite with their pets from overseas: ‘It meant everything to me’

Chiropractor works on giraffe, is nuzzled: ‘Giraffes are just giant dogs?’

An SUV was in flames on the highway. Strangers saved the driver.  

An assassination plot on American soil reveals a darker side of Modi’s India

As U.S. rushes to send military aid, Ukrainians applaud lobbying effort

Middle East conflict live updates: Gaza on the agenda as Blinken, top diplomats gather in Saudi Arabia

The Rangers swept the Capitals, and it’s time for the new core to take charge

Capitals get pushed aside by Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers

 Donald Trump Speaks During A Campaign Rally In Green Bay Wisconsin

Big Tech news and how to take control of your data and devices

See more coverage in your recommendations

Technology

Tips delivered to your inbox twice weekly

The Tech Friend newsletter

Business and Tech alerts

White nationalists have embraced "Black Panther," Marvel Comics' blockbuster, to push their argument online that nation-states should be organized by ethnic groups, according to new research published Wednesday, an unlikely convolution of the ground-breaking African superhero movie.

One popular image circulating on far-right corners of the Internet shows the title character — the superhero king of the fictional, secluded and wealthy African nation of Wakanda — wearing a red “Make Wakanda Great Again” hat. This is an explicit homage to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign gear.

The image, first posted online in June, months before the Disney/Marvel film's February release, carried a headline of “BLACK PANTHER IS ALT-RIGHT,” referring to the movement that espouses racist, anti-Semitic and sexist views and seeks a whites-only state. It claimed the superhero opposed immigration, diversity and democracy while favoring “ethno-nationalism” — a profound mischaracterization of the movie’s main themes, according to researchers at Data & Society, a New York-based think tank that studied far-right online conversation about the film. They said the film uses science fiction and "Afro-futurism," a thematic exploration of African and African American history, to explore real-life questions of culture, race and politics.

Similar misleading messages, the researchers said, are being delivered over YouTube, Twitter and 4chan, an anonymous online message board where far-right political activists often exchange views and plan disinformation campaigns, such as the recent effort to portray last month’s high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., as a hoax. The researchers noted efforts by white nationalists to "downvote" "Black Panther" on the popular movie-rating site Rotten Tomatoes.

[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/we-studied-thousands-of-anonymous-posts-about-the-parkland-attack---and-found-a-conspiracy-in-the-making/2018/02/27/04a856be-1b20-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html?utm_term=.ef61f54c69af">We studied thousands of anonymous posts about the Parkland attack — and found a conspiracy in the making</a>]

“They're very savvy about social media use. They know if they can cover 'Black Panther,' it'll show up in search results for people looking to learn more about the movie,” said Becca Lewis, one of the Data & Society researchers. “They try to phrase white nationalism as identity politics for white people. … They’re essentially trying to co-opt its identity politics."

Researchers said the episode seemed to mark a turn for white nationalists online. Instead of avoiding a cultural phenomenon that conflicts with their ideology, they have sought to subvert and transform it in hopes of recruiting followers and normalizing their views on white supremacy. The misinformation campaign also shows how such groups are increasingly propagating disinformation, by morphing breaking news and cultural touchstones into staging grounds for hateful ideologies and racist ideas.

Ashleigh Joplin

Malkia Cyril, the executive director of the Center for Media Justice, an Oakland-based nonprofit group, said, "The claim that the Black Panther hero, King T'Challa, represents the core beliefs of the alt right — isolationism, anti-globalism and racial homogeneity — is preposterous, and can only be asserted by white supremacists or people who really don't understand the relationship between Africans in the diaspora and on the continent."

The research also described widespread efforts by conservative commentators to portray "Black Panther" as “anti-white” because of its mainly black cast and celebration of African heritage and identity. The movie, based on a series of comic books, focuses on the struggle of the superhero to protect his kingdom from attack while wrestling with moral questions about whether to share Wakanda’s natural wealth and technology with the outside world.

[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2018/03/13/its-everything-black-athletes-are-celebrating-with-wakanda-forever-salutes-from-black-panther/?utm_term=.a486ba2193bb">‘It’s everything’: Black athletes are celebrating with ‘Wakanda Forever’ salutes</a>]

The Black Panther and other characters in the film also engage extensively with the United States, where some of the action is set. But the traditional portrayal of Africans needing help from wealthy, white Westerners is flipped, with the superhero and other Wakandans bringing advanced technology and a quest for justice to a world badly in need of both. One of the few white characters, a CIA officer, is portrayed as generally well intentioned but occasionally feckless.

The researchers said white nationalists seeking to manipulate the portrayal of "Black Panther" created Twitter hashtags, including #Wakandaisntreal and #OpenBordersforWakanda. Others highlighted a number of Jewish people who worked on the film, to bolster the white-nationalist argument that the mainstream media is controlled by a Jewish cabal.

Alt-right podcasts and neo-Nazi blogs have for several months encouraged listeners and readers to call black Americans "Wakandans" and use memes in an attempt to belittle the movie's characters, fans and ideas.

A YouTube personality who the researchers say often espouses "ethnonationalist views" uploaded a video titled, "Black Panther: A Hero the #AltRight Deserves?" It says, "The alt-right should not only consider supporting the Black Panther movie; they should meme it all over social media and attend screenings en masse, proudly showing their solidarity with him and his values. If not only just for the giggle factor, it would definitely confuse, disorient, and discombobulate those on the far-left."

[<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/02/16/black-panther-will-break-box-office-records-but-could-it-change-the-movie-business/?utm_term=.36c6f81088f6">‘Black Panther’ just broke box-office records. But some worry it’ll be the exception, not the rule.</a>]

Conservative and far-right groups have sometimes jumped on pop-culture phenomena to allege conspiracies or liberal agendas. In December, the self-described “alt-right” leader of a Facebook page named “Down With Disney’s Treatment of Franchises and its Fanboys” blamed “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” for what he described as advancing a “feminist agenda.”

NRA spokesman Grant Stinchfield at the time also went after Mark Hamill, who has spoken out in favor of stricter gun-control laws, by saying on NRA TV that “lightsabers and laser guns are what gave the good guys in every Star Wars movie a fighting chance.” Stinchfield told Hamill to “go back to Hollywood, drink a latte and call security to watch your back.”

But this incident marks a reversal of sorts. Rather than use “Black Panther” as evidence of Hollywood’s liberalism, the alt-right has suggested the world’s largest entertainment company, Disney, is quietly supporting its beliefs.

The fact the movie has become a massive hit – it sits as the seventh-highest-grossing domestic movie of all time not adjusting for inflation — has been used to further support its case.

The movie drew accolades as the first superhero movie featuring a predominantly black cast and has drawn particular enthusiasm with African American audiences and in screenings in several African nations. It also has attracted a massive audience beyond these groups, grossing $242 million in its opening weekend in the United States and more than $1 billion worldwide.

David Betancourt

Erin Patrick O'Connor

Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The movie's creators went to great lengths to incorporate elements of African culture, including authentic fabrics and other costume elements from around the continent, in producing the film. The Black Panther first appeared in Marvel comics in 1966 as a member of the Fantastic Four and later was the hero of several comic books.

"Wakandans are isolationist because they don’t want to become refugees," said Kinjal Dave, one of the Data & Society researchers. "The far-right is isolationist because they don’t want to accept refugees."

Connecticut College

Craig Timberg is a deputy managing editor for The Washington Post. Since joining The Post in 1998, he has been a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent, and he contributed to The Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the National Security Agency and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Craig Timberg

Finalist for the Livingston Award in 2022. Member of the "Pegasus Project" team that won a George Polk Award in 2021. 

University of Florida

Drew Harwell is a reporter for The Washington Post covering technology. He was a member of an international reporting team that won a George Polk Award in 2021.

Drew Harwell

The Arthur F. Burns Prize for Foreign Reporting

Columbia University and Yeshiva University

Steven Zeitchik covers the emerging technologies that are transforming our lives – from cryptocurrency to the metaverse to AI to cutting-edge digital shifts still to come. He also has covered the business of entertainment. examining the industry's trends, challenges, issues and ideas.