What is SPLC? Why they are facing backlash after ADL; FBI Director Kash Patel asked to cut ties

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has come under fire for a report on Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA with many asking FBI Director Kash Patel to cut ties with the organization.

FBI Director Kash Patel has been asked by many online to cut ties with SPLC amid outrage against the organization.(Getty Images via AFP)

This comes after Patel announced on October 2 that they were severing ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) amid a fallout from Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Patel, on X, had stated, “James Comey wrote “love letters” to the ADL and embedded FBI agents with them – a group that ran disgraceful ops spying on Americans. That era is OVER. This FBI won’t partner with political fronts masquerading as watchdogs.”

His move came amid a row over ADL’s Glossary of Extremism, which had included references to TPUSA. Kirk, the conservative political activist who founded the group, was fatally shot and killed on September 10. An archived ADL page reportedly said “Individuals associated with TPUSA have a history of bigoted statements about the Black community, the LGBTQ community and specifically transgender people, and other minority groups,” as per The Hill.

“While TPUSA repeatedly has stated that it rejects white supremacist ideology, white nationalists openly have attended their events. Moreover, extremists and far-right conspiracy theorists have been featured at the AmericaFest conference and other TPUSA events. However, it should be noted that Kirk himself publicly condemned such groups, insisting that they did not represent TPUSA and their beliefs,” it added.

Amid a tense political atmosphere after Kirk’s assassination, many profiles on X are now saying that SPLC is pushing the same rhetoric about Kirk and TPUSA as ADL.

What is SPLC and what did it say about Charlie Kirk?

SPLC is a nonprofit legal advocacy group based in Montgomery, Alabama, which specializes in civil rights and public interest litigation. It is known for civil cases against white supremacist groups and for classifying hate groups and other extremist organizations.

SPLC was founded by Morris Dees, Joseph J Levin Jr, and Julian Bond in 1971, when it started off as a civil rights law firm.

The organization is now under fire for a report titled Turning Point USA: A case study of the hard right in 2024. The charge has been led by Elon Musk on his platform X, where he directly stated “SPLC is guilty of incitement to murder Charlie Kirk.” Musk shared a post by Kirk’s friend and conservative activist Jack Posobiec, who wrote “One day before Charlie was shot and killed, he was featured in the SPLC’s ‘Hatewatch’ newsletter.”

In another post, Musk wrote “The SPLC is an evil organization that spreads hate propaganda relentlessly. It needs to be shut down.” Meanwhile, Posobiec reposted an old X message from Kirk, where he had called SPLC a ‘hate group’.

Andrew Kolvet, a spokesperson with the TPUSA, also commented, stating “What’s happening right now to the ADL and SPLC is critically important and deadly serious. They are both part of an ecosystem leveraged by radical left vigilantes to dehumanize conservatives and stoke political violence. They provide the sheen of legitimacy for the left’s violent foot soldiers.”

He added, “The day before Charlie was murdered, the SPLC published a newsletter directly attacking Charlie. In May, they added TPUSA to their notorious Hate Map. Did these contribute to the assassin’s motive? We may never know, but the swirl of extremist propaganda certainly played a role.”

Kolvet further continued, “The SPLC has been credibly accused of corruption, mishandling of donations, union-busting, and covering up of sexual assault by senior leadership, all while sitting on nearly $1 billion in reserves and being based in red Alabama. These are legitimate predicates for investigation. Those should happen immediately. The influence of the ADL and SPLC must be completely purged from any serious company, org, and agency. Companies like PayPal which still rely on these disgraced orgs should be the focus of future boycotts if they insist on continuing their association.”

While none of them have called on Patel to cut ties with SPLC, that demand has come from other right-wing quarters.

“Kash Patel’s FBI rightly cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League, which tried to weaponize law enforcement against critics of transgender ideology. Now, it needs to officially declare its separation from the Southern Poverty Law Center,” one person said.

“Kash Patel Orders The FBI To Cut Ties With The ADL After They Listed Charlie Kirk / TPUSA As A Dangerous Extremist Organization. Now, The Equally Corrupt SPLC Is Next On The Chopping Block!,” commented far-right radio host Alex Jones.

“Please designate the SPLC as the category of organization that it “really “ is. Domestic Terrorist organization. Then shut it down, and MAGA,” another person wrote, tagging the FBI director. Notably, Patel has not made any formal announcement yet, but in the case of ADL, there was some online outrage before the FBI announcement came.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time Republicans have tried to get the FBI to stop using SPLC. In October 2023, it was reported that Senators James Lankford (R-OK), who then served on the Senate Intelligence and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees, and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Senior Member of the Judiciary Committee, had sent a letter to the FBI calling out the agency’s continued use of SPLC as a source.

“The SPLC is an extremely biased and unreliable source that classifies organizations as ‘hate groups’ if they promote traditional conservative values….While labeling others as hateful, it’s the SPLC that has perpetuated hate. The FBI should be concerned that the SPLC targets people of faith. Instead, the FBI chose to use SPLC data as justification for intelligence assessments of traditional Catholics. We demand that the FBI stop using the SPLC as an investigative source and direct all field offices that the SPLC not be used in any analytical product,” they had written.