Commentators and activists erupted on social media following the Department of Justice’s announcement of the Grand Jury indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), using the charges to revisit long-standing criticisms of the organization and its influence over corporations and public discourse, with some of the biggest donors being companies Americans are closely familiar with. 

The indictment reveals that the SPLC was taking donations from donors and claiming to use them to “fight hate” while funding the very hate they claimed to be fighting. The indictment also reignited criticism of the SPLC’s longstanding “hate map” and its influence on corporate policy.

Karol Markowicz wrote, “A reminder than in 2022 SPLC (and the ADL) worked with PayPal to decide which ‘extreme’ groups to remove from PayPal’s service…all the while funding actually extreme groups.”

Jennifer Sey pointed to the organization’s corporate backing, writing that companies including Apple, JPMorgan Chase, and Nike have donated to the SPLC, while others such as PayPal, Google, Meta, Amazon, Mastercard, and Starbucks have relied on its data to guide internal policies.

“Perhaps they saw the writing on the wall?” Sey wrote, noting that Salesforce had recently ended its reliance on SPLC data. She added that corporations would likely publicly dismiss the charges while quietly distancing themselves from the group.

Another account, Insurrection Barbie, highlighted a surge in donations following the Charlottesville rally, listing major contributions from George and Amal Clooney, outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, JPMorgan Chase, and MGM Resorts.

“They went from 65 million in donations to 130 million in donations. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence,” the account wrote.

George and Amal Clooney donated $1 million to the SPLC after the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally in 2017, which it turns out was in part funded by the SPLC even as they sought donations claims to fight it.

Charlie Kirk, in a post from May 2025, slammed the SPLC for previously designating his organization as a “hate group.” “The SPLC has added Turning Point to their ridiculous ‘hate group’ list, right next to the KKK and neo-Nazis,” Kirk wrote in a prior post that resurfaced amid the backlash. He accused the organization of using its classifications to pressure financial institutions and target political opponents. Kirk was killed in Sept. 2025 and the suspect charged with that killing claimed that Kirk’s “hate” was something he could no longer tolerate.

A post from WallStreetMav also pointed out that the SPLC “has nearly $1 billion in reserves raised from donors (tax deductible) based off of the scam they have been running.”

In another post, Jack Posobiec, who responded to an older headline featuring Alex Jones’ claims about the 2017 Charlottesville rally by writing: “Alex Jones right again.” 

The headline referenced Jones’ assessment that the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally was orchestrated by operatives and involved paid actors, a claim that has long been disputed but was revived in light of the Grand Jury’s findings that the SPLC paid confidential sources embedded within extremist groups.

The DOJ announced charges against the SPLC yesterday, including wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering. Prosecutors allege the group, through shell companies, paid individuals affiliated with organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups while publicly positioning itself as an organization dedicated to combating extremism.

“According to the charges in the indictment,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “the SPLC was not dismantling these groups, it was instead manufacturing the extremism it purports to oppose by paying sources to stoke racial hatred.”

Blanche said one individual tied to the planning of the 2017 Charlottesville rally received $275,000 over eight years, and that the SPLC distributed roughly $3 million to at least eight sources connected to extremist organizations between 2014 and 2023.

The SPLC has predictably denied wrongdoing and said that it was aware of a federal investigation. In a statement, the organization said the scrutiny appeared to focus on its “prior use of paid confidential informants to gather credible intelligence on extremely violent groups.”