Fascism is conquering the internet. Right-wing populists are abusing social networks to attract people.

With propaganda, they are shifting our society to the right. The small anti-racism organization “Gesicht Zeigen!” (well known from their project “Mein Kampf against racism”) strives to fight back.

To show the imminent danger of social media in the wrong hands, we made Adolf Hitler himself explain the right-wing social media state. Through a reworked version of the Nazi propaganda film “Triumph des Willens” we enabled Hitler to share his online strategy in an online video. Stating how he wants to attract and mobilize new followers in the future.

To symbolize Hitler’s online influence, we used an icon that reigns supreme on the internet: the hashtag. By simply adding a specific background we completely changed its meaning, directly referring to the Nazi swastika. The Hitler Hashtag was born.

We kicked off the campaign with huge flags in the heart of Berlin’s political district, involved the press and spread the motif on- and offline by involving a network of 300,000 influencers.

Our campaign hit hearts everywhere and young influencers joined the fight against racism. The campaign became a relevant topic with 76 million of contacts via earned media and 850,000 likes.

YouTube stopped our video in 30 countries, but that didn’t stop us (from uploading it again and again, also on other platforms). And this generated even more attention.

Even right-wing extremists spoke about us. But more important: so did the people who wanted to take a stand against racism – 550% more new members joined “Gesicht Zeigen!” per month than usual.