ADL Deletes ‘Extremism’ Database After Receiving Backlash For Including Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
The Anti-Defamation League deleted its “Glossary of Extremism” database on Tuesday after receiving backlash for including the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA.
In a statement, the ADL announced that it had retired the “extremism” database after its decision to list Turning Point USA – even after founder Kirk’s recent assassination – sparked uproar on social media, including from billionaire Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr.
“With over 1,000 entries written over many years, the ADL Glossary of Extremism has served as a source of high-level information on a wide range of topics for years. At the same time, an increasing number of entries in the Glossary were outdated,” the organization said. “We also saw a number of entries intentionally misrepresented and misused. Moreover, our experts have continued to develop more comprehensive resources and innovative ways to provide information about antisemitism, extremism and hate.”
The statement continued, “At ADL, we always are looking for how we can and should do things better. That’s why we are moving to retire the Glossary effectively immediately. This will allow ADL to explore new strategies and creative approaches to deliver our data and present our research more effectively. It will keep us focused on ensuring we do what we do best: fighting antisemitism and hate in the most impactful ways possible.”
Links to the ADL’s Turning Point USA entry and to the Glossary of Extremism database in general now redirect users to the organization’s homepage.
The ADL continues to host another Turning Point USA page, listed under the category, “Extremism, Hate or Terrorism,” which acknowledges Kirk’s murder and his support for Israel, while at the same time accusing his organization of having “ties to a range of right-wing extremists” with “a history of bigoted statements about the Black community, the LGBTQ community and specifically transgender people, and other minority groups.”
In 2019, the ADL claimed Turning Point USA was “a right-wing student group whose leaders & activists have made multiple racist or bigoted comments & have been linked to a variety of extremists.”
The ADL also claimed Turning Point USA’s “leadership” appeared “to defend Hitler’s nationalism.”
