Instagram is facing increasing scrutiny after an extensive investigation revealed that reels promoting pro-Nazi, Holocaust-denying, and blatantly anti-Semitic content were being disseminated to millions of users.
A study conducted by Fortune discovered that such offensive content was placed alongside advertisements from major American companies, including JP Morgan, SUNY, and even the US Army.
These findings emerge just a few months after Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, significantly relaxed content policies and dismantled the company’s fact-checking program in the United States.
Zuckerberg justified the policy shift as a move towards ‘prioritizing free speech,’ but critics argue it has made extremist propaganda more accessible on the platform.
At the heart of the issue is a now-inactive account of a fashion brand called @forbiddenclothes.
Although the account appears to have been deleted, it reportedly posted memes with fascist themes that garnered significant engagement, according to Fortune.
One of its pinned reels as seen by Fortune along with 31 million others, featured a Nazi SS Officer from the film Inglorious Basterds being used as part of a meme captioned, ‘When the family is arguing about politics and they ask for my expert opinion’.
Comments condemning the clip’s use for glorifying Nazism were largely outnumbered by positives responses according to the report, which also said that engaging with the reel opened a gateway to more egregious content.
Instagram is facing intense scrutiny following findings that the app’s algorithms were circulating openly anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi, and Holocaust-denial videos to vast audiences
The revelations come just months after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg drastically loosened content rules and dismantled the company’s independent fact-checking program shortly before President Trump returned to office
One reel which followed showed an AI-fabricated ‘translation’ of an alleged Adolf Hitler speech, with graphics claiming to identify Jewish people in Trump’s cabinet and at major media organizations.
The video, viewed 1.4 million times, featured Jewish stars photoshopped onto people’s faces.
Comments included: ‘We owe the big man an apology’, referencing Hitler. Another user wrote: ‘He was right about everything.’
One Fortune reporter found Holocaust-denial memes including one featuring a ‘small-brain’ figure saying ‘He gassed millions of people. Read a history book,’ and a ‘big-brain’ figure replying, ‘Who wrote the history books?’
The post, which suggests that the Holocaust was fabricated by Jewish people by playing into racist conspiracy theories about Jewish people controlling media, amassed 3.2 million views and more than 250,000 interactions.
After Fortune flagged the posts to Meta, the clips quietly disappeared but not before they had been circulated widely.
The content appeared in a pattern that experts say is a result of Instagram’s algorithm reward system.
Once a user interacts with even a single fascist-coded reel, Instagram’s recommendation engine ‘personalizes’ a feed that rapidly morphs into a stream of anti-Semitic conspiracies, racist jokes, and glorification of Nazi imager, often packaged as humor or as an edgy, ironic aesthetic.
The investigation found that this content was overlaid with paid advertising for some of the country’s most respected brands, from JPMorgan Chase to Nationwide Insurance, SUNY, Porsche and even the US Army.
The extremist content and corporate ads played back-to-back, per the study. However, there is no suggestion that the companies knew what content their ads were being placed next to.
Meta took the posts down once they were flagged, though the videos had already reached a massive audience
Meta which owns both Facebook and Instagram was once a platform that once poured money into moderation but has since reversed course
A US Army spokesperson said the military does not control Meta’s ad placement.
Meta issued a short statement to Fortune: ‘We don’t want this kind of content on our platforms, and brands don’t want their ads to appear next to it.’
The company said it added the flagged posts to its database of banned material.
Meta’s own policies explicitly prohibit Holocaust denial, claims that Jewish people control financial institutions, and any content that glorifies Hitler.
The investigation also revealed the financial gains of pushing out offensive content.
A UK meme-page operator explained to Fortune how he had made ‘over £10,000 [$13,000]’ selling T-shirts and shout-outs, adding that Hitler-themed posts ‘always get more traction.’
A US-based tech worker said he made nearly $3,000 from Instagram bonuses before being demonetized. He even admitted that he is Jewish and does not believe the content, but posted it because ‘offensive and political’ reels grow accounts fastest.
Several creators said they saw their earnings skyrocket after Zuckerberg decided to end third party fact checking.
Zvika Krieger, Meta’s former director of responsible innovation, told Fortune that after the rule change, moderation systems were ‘intentionally made less sensitive’.
President Trump and Mark Zuckerberg are seen during a dinner with US tech leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC in September
‘Whatever creates the most engagement is going to get rewarded in this algorithm,’ Krieger said.
Zuckerberg’s sweeping policy reversal came on January 8, 2025, just two weeks before Donald Trump returned to the White House.
In a five-minute video that stunned civil-rights groups and cheered portions of MAGA world, Zuckerberg announced that Meta was ending its use of independent fact checkers on Facebook and Instagram.
Instead, they have been replaced with X-style ‘community notes’ where the commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users.
Zuckerberg also noted the the threshold required to remove hate speech would be raised in an effort to ‘restore free expression’ on the platform.
He said the 2024 elections ‘feel like a cultural tipping-point toward once again prioritizing speech,’ adding: ‘We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms.’
However, critics including the Anti Defamation League noted an increase in anti-Semitic content following the policy shift.
In May, the ADL said that Jewish members of Congress had experienced a fivefold increase in harassment on Facebook.
Meta has defended its policing of content on its site.
‘In just the first half of 2025, we actioned nearly 21 million pieces of content for violating our prohibition on Dangerous Organizations and Individuals,’ Meta said in a statement.
Having initially claimed a 99 percent proactive detection rate, the company later admitted the true figure was ‘in the low 90s’
Daily Mail has contacted Meta for comment as well as JPMorgan Chase, Nationwide Insurance, SUNY and Porsche.
