Flash Report: Dormant ‘Antifa’ Narratives Resurrected After Executive Order

TLDR:

Open Measures found that discussions of “Antifa” — a truncated way to refer to antifascist activists — were largely dormant, even on alt-platforms popular with right-wing audiences in the United States, for most of President Donald Trump’s current term. That all changed on Sept. 10, 2025, when a gunman killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk and the White House rushed to blame the “radical left.”

Context

On Sept. 22, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring “Antifa” was a domestic terrorist organization and subsequently instructed his administration to investigate ways of dismantling the “organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources, and predicate actions” behind it.¹

The order came in apparent response to the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, though hyperbolic conspiracy theories about Antifa have animated pro-Trump political media for more than a decade.

Antifa is widely understood as an ideological posture, not a consolidated political organization. As such, those who self-identify as Antifa can differ drastically in their political beliefs and the activist tactics they endorse. In contemporary discourse, “Antifa” often describes protest groups that adopt militant aesthetics and tactics, or those who engage in hostile online behavior against far-right extremists, law enforcement personnel, or those perceived as authoritarian. These stylings and tactics represent a narrow cross-section of various US political demographics who might broadly describe themselves antifascist, undermining the coherence of “Antifa” as an overarching political designation.²

There is evidence, however, that political caricatures of “Antifa” — like those contained in Trump’s executive order — have inspired deadly acts of political violence.³ Renewed interest in Antifa-related narratives risks reigniting threats and harassment against their targets, including political donors and nonprofits.⁴

The Resurrection of Antifa Narratives

Open Measures sought to identify posts mentioning terms like “Antifa” and the so-called “radical left” on seven alt-platforms dominated by right-wing communities in their US contexts — 4chan, Gab, Gettr, Rumble, Scored, Telegram, and Truth Social — since Trump began his current term on Jan. 20, 2025. Our researchers used the following search string:

antifa* OR anti-fasc* OR anarchist* OR “black bloc” OR trantif* OR “leftist militants” OR “leftist militant” OR “left-wing extremism” OR “left-wing extremist” OR “leftist extremist” OR “militant left” OR “radical leftist” OR “radical leftists” OR #antifa OR #antifascist OR #antifascism OR #trantifa

For most of our analysis period, the daily number of posts containing terms related to Antifa narratives across platforms was relatively steady. With the exception of a surge in June, coinciding with multi-day protests against federal immigration raids in Los Angeles, most days saw fewer than 1,000 total posts across the seven platforms we analyzed.⁵

This trend changed drastically after the Trump Administration and allied media figures began asserting that the gunman who killed Kirk had been a “radical leftist,” despite the fact that no suspect had been identified at the time they first made their claims. After Kirk’s death, posts containing Antifa-related terms surged across all platforms we analyzed and peaked on Sept. 17, the day Trump announced his plans to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization.

Caption: Mentions of terms related to Antifa narratives were relatively dormant, seeing occasional small spikes until a gunman killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025. Prior to that event, Antifa narratives seemed to animate Truth Social’s base more than it did users on other platforms. (Graphic made with Flourish using Open Measures data)

The renewed interest in Antifa has demonstrated staying power on the platforms we examined. Of the nearly 239,000 posts containing Antifa-related terms we found in our analysis, about 56% appeared in the 233 days preceding Kirk’s death; the remaining 44% appeared in the 40 days after (a more than 4.5x increase in the rate of posts).

Of all the posts identified prior to Kirk’s death, nearly 45% appeared on Truth Social, the microblogging platform owned by Trump. While our research showed that user interest in Antifa waxed and waned on all seven platforms, Antifa-related discussions tended to animate Truth Social users with more frequency, consistency, and intensity. After Kirk’s death, however, all seven platforms saw increases in the rates Antifa-related posts appeared.

Caption: Across all seven platforms we analyzed, Truth Social has had the highest number of posts containing Antifa-related terms since Trump began his second presidential term on Jan. 20, 2025. Prior to Charlie Kirk’s death, the platform was responsible for nearly 45% of all Antifa-related posts. (Graphic made with Flourish using Open Measures data)

What We’re Watching

Elected officials and influencers have openly discussed leveraging Kirk’s death as a pretext to crack down on critics and investigate liberal donors, businesses, and nonprofits.⁶ Because federal officials are being asked to investigate groups who may be involved in a violent left-wing conspiracy that doesn’t exist, Open Measures plans to monitor the development of Antifa narratives for threats and reputational attacks against at-risk entities.