The SPLC is an American non-profit founded in Alabama in the 1970s to fight poverty and racism. It monitors America's hate groups and sues on behalf of their victims.
In recent years the organisation drew heavy criticism for expanding its definition of extremism to include more mainstream conservative groups and individuals. Among those it labelled as dangerous extremists were the Family Research Council, Moms for Liberty and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a writer.
After Charlie Kirk was assassinated in September 2025, the SPLC vaulted to the top of MAGA's enemy list. Elon Musk blamed it for inciting the killing by criticising Mr Kirk in its "Hatewatch" newsletter and branding his organisation as "authoritarian". Kash Patel, the FBI director, called the SPLC a "partisan smear machine" and cut the bureau's longstanding ties with it.
In April 2026 the Department of Justice indicted the SPLC on wire-fraud charges. A 14-page indictment alleged that between 2014 and 2023 the non-profit secretly funnelled more than $3m through fake bank accounts to informants inside far-right groups, including an officer of the Aryan Nations, the president of American Front and an Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The SPLC has not denied the facts but said in court that the government was in on it all along. Legal scholars note that using informants to gather intelligence is deeply embedded in the American legal system—the FBI itself regularly pays snitches—but the SPLC is a non-profit, not a law agency. For the charges to stick, prosecutors must show either that the SPLC made explicitly false statements to donors or that it had a clear legal duty to disclose information.
Critics of the indictment note that the government's filing described its informants in enough detail to allow them to be identified, potentially endangering their lives in a world where informing is treated as a capital offence.
QOTD: "I used to get high on life but lately I've built up a resistance."