Warning
The Proud Boys is an American Terrorist Group
The FBI Has Not Created an American Terrorist List Yet.
The Proud Boys is an American far-right, neo-fascist, and exclusively male organization that promotes and engages in political violence in the United States.[1][6]
The group originated in the far-right Taki’s Magazine in 2016 under the leadership of Vice Media co-founder and former commentator Gavin McInnes,[1] taking its name from the song “Proud of Your Boy” from the 2011 Disney musical Aladdin.[7] Although the Proud Boys initially emerged as part of the alt-right,[1] McInnes distanced himself from this movement in early 2017, saying the Proud Boys were alt-lite while the alt-right’s focus was on race.[8] The re-branding effort intensified following the white supremacist Unite the Right rally.[9] Enrique Tarrio has been the chairman of the Proud Boys since late 2018.[1][10][11][12] According to a former federal prosecutor and the transcripts of a 2014 federal court proceeding, Tarrio had previously served as an informant to both federal and local law enforcement.[1][13][14]
According to Samantha Kutner of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, the group believes men and Western culture are under siege. Although the group officially rejects white supremacy, Kutner believes that “Western chauvinism” is a code for the White genocide conspiracy theory.[15] Furthermore, members have in the past participated in overtly racist events and events centered around fascist, anti-left, and anti-socialist violence.[15] The Proud Boys glorifies violence, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has called the group an “alt-right fight club” that uses rhetorical devices to obscure its actual motives.[16][17][18] The organization has been described as a hate group by NPR‘s The Takeaway and the SPLC.[19] The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has described the Proud Boys as “extremist conservative” and “alt lite“, “overtly Islamophobic and misogynistic”, “transphobic and anti-immigration”, “all too willing to embrace racists, antisemites and bigots of all kinds”, and notes the group’s promotion and use of violence as a core tactic.[20]
The group has been banned from numerous social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter,[1][21] as well as YouTube.[22] On February 3, 2021, the United States Justice Department announced the indictment of members for conspiracy related to the 2021 United States Capitol attack; the Canadian arm of the group folded after being officially designated a terrorist organization on the same day.[1][23][24][25][26] Since then, at least two dozen Proud Boys members and affiliates have been indicted for their alleged roles in the insurrection.[27][28][29] The organization was subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack in November 2021.
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