What The Hell America!

Content warning: This article contains references to graphic antisemitic, racist, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ+ language. Reader discretion is advised.

A former mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter turned podcast host is spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories, male supremacist bigotry and white nationalist beliefs to audiences on mainstream podcasting platforms, behavior that appears to violate their content moderation policies.

These platforms include such recognizable names as Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Jake Shields launched his podcast, “Fight Back with Jake Shields,” in August 2024. He has invited many well-known white nationalists onto his podcast, including David Duke, as well as antisemitic conspiracist Germar Rudolf. He has also interviewed popular male supremacists, such as Myron Gaines. Interspersed between promoting Hitler, spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and parroting white nationalist talking points about the behavior of certain racial groups, Shields interviews MMA fighters and other athletes about their careers and personal lives.

Hatewatch emailed a detailed set of questions to Shields, then followed up by text message. Shields responded via text, asking that the questions be sent to his phone.

Shields replied to Hatewatch with a series of text messages, most of which did not directly address Hatewatch’s list of questions. Instead, Shields accused the Southern Poverty Law Center of trying to control his speech, writing, “I think you are an organization of hatful [sic] demons who want to control speech while killing kids.” When asked to elaborate, Shields wrote, “you guys are a disgusting anti-American organization.”

Shields shared a strong critique of Israel’s continuing assault on Gaza, writing, “I’m sick of people pushing a genocide trying to get me censored.” But he quickly devolved into graphic antisemitic remarks, including about alleged Jewish control over the American government, Holocaust denial and child abuse. (The SPLC released a statement on the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2023.) Throughout the exchange, Shields insisted that the Hatewatch reporter was Jewish, writing in one representative example, “I do hate jews like you though.”

With his podcast and more than 800,000 followers on X, Shields provides an enormous audience for white nationalists, Holocaust deniers and other far-right extremists who are typically confined to smaller audio and video-hosting platforms with low content moderation such as Telegram and Rumble. Podcasters like Shields with notoriety outside the hate movement also provide far-right activists access to new audiences to radicalize. Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube nevertheless host Shields’ show, which features far-right activists they have previously banned. In effect, Shields’ show provides a back door to these platforms and access to their vast audiences.

Despite some platforms rolling back their moderation policies, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube appear to have continued to maintain policies barring hateful and bigoted rhetoric. Spotify, for example, prohibits “dehumanizing statements about a person or group” based on several factors including race, religion, gender identity or expression, and sexual orientation. Spotify also bans rhetoric that promotes hate groups and their associated images. Apple Podcasts and YouTube have similar policies.

Hatewatch sent the platforms a detailed set of questions, which included examples of antisemitic and bigoted content Shields has produced.

A YouTube spokesperson responded via email, writing, “Upon review, the videos shared do not violate our Community Guidelines.” Asked about their policies regarding terminated users appearing on channels hosted by other creators, the spokesperson told Hatewatch that creators are “prohibited from letting others whose YouTube channels have been terminated use their YouTube channel to bypass termination.” While YouTube confirmed that many of the people who appear on Shields’ channel — Fuentes, Rousseau, Duke, Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys, and others — are “terminated users,” the spokesperson also said that “Terminated users may appear on YouTube in other contexts, such as interviews.”

Hatewatch reached out to Spotify several times on its media contact web page but did not receive a response. Hatewatch contacted Apple Podcasts, and a representative indicated that they would be available for a phone call, but they never responded to multiple follow-up emails.

‘I don’t think a single Jew died in gas chambers’

Of all the bigoted conspiracy theories Shields shares to his X account and his podcast, he appears to have a particular fixation on antisemitism and Holocaust denialism. For example, in a Feb. 20 post to X, Shields shared an easily debunked claim about the number of Jewish people killed in the Holocaust. When someone pointed out his lie, Shields responded, “I don’t think a single Jew died in gas chambers.” In another Feb. 20 post to X, Shields appeared to call for the death penalty against U.S. Sen. John Fetterman for his support of Israel, writing, “This is treason and we know the penalty for treason.”

On his podcast in January, Shields interviewed Germar Rudolf, who is the author of The Rudolf Report. His book falsely claimed the gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp were not used for mass murder, which led a German court to sentence him to two and a half years in prison for inciting racial hatred. He currently leads the hate group Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH), which publishes pseudo-academic books and articles using long-debunked claims about Jewish manipulation of historical records. Hatewatch found Rudolf’s interview on Shields’ Rumble channel. Shields’ interview of Rudolf does not appear on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.

Shields asked in the text exchange with Hatewatch, “show me where Germar [Rudolf] was wrong.” Hatewatch shared evidence from the book The Case for Auschwitz: Evidence from the Irving Trial that includes a section about Rudolf’s multiple attempts to deceive the court to support David Irving’s libel case against a book publisher and author. For example, Rudolf created several “personae who could serve as expert witnesses” by pointing to works he authored under different names, according to the book’s author. Irving is a longtime Holocaust denier who associated with National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group. Irving lost his case, and the judge ordered him to pay the book publisher’s court costs, which were estimated to be $5 million.

Shields responded to the evidence Hatewatch presented, writing: “you slimy jews jailed a man for proving your lies. And you want to do the same with me. You are (sic) sick and demonic individual. Even AI can see he’s probably right and they are programmed so they can’t deny it.” Shields included screenshots of him asking X’s AI tool about Rudolf to support his point.

Antisemitic content producer Ayo Kimathi appeared on Shields’ show in February. Kimathi previously worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, before his extremist beliefs were exposed in 2013. He published his book Jews Are the Problem in 2023 via Money Tree Publishing, an SPLC-designated antisemitic hate group. Kimathi also cohosts a podcast with Money Tree Publishing’s leader. According to a Feb. 20 post on X, YouTube removed Shields’ show with Kimathi; however, the show remains on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

YouTube’s spokesperson confirmed Kimathi’s interview was removed because it violated its hate speech policy. Asked whether the same policy could be used to remove other episodes for what appear to be similar violations, YouTube’s representative wrote via email: “Context matters, so we enforce our Community Guidelines on a video-by-video basis. We’ve never had lists of banned words, since these can be used in different contexts (history, documentary, reclaimed, etc.).”

On Shields’ show, Kimathi spread a litany of easily debunked antisemitic conspiracy theories, including accusations that Jewish people controlled the transatlantic slave trade, as well as lies about Leo Frank, a Jewish man who was lynched by a mob after he was wrongfully convicted of murdering a 13-year-old girl in Georgia in the early 20^th century. The lynching of Frank was one of the incidents that helped pave the way for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. However, Kimathi blames the racist and antisemitic organization on Jewish people themselves, claiming “There would be no Klan without Jews.”

Over text message, when confronted with the academic consensus that Leo Frank was not a child rapist, Shields doubled down, writing, “Historians are pressured to lie by disgusting people like you.”

‘Make men misogynistic again’

Shields has featured several male supremacists on his podcast, including Nico de Balinthazy aka Sneako, Walter Weekes and Gaines. Male supremacy is the bigoted belief that cisgender men are innately superior and thus have a right to subjugate women, trans men and nonbinary people. Hatewatch found these podcast episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Balinthazy aims to “make men misogynistic again,” and has pushed dangerous messages about consent to his young followers. In one viral video, he told viewers that when a woman says no to sex, she really means “convince me” because she doesn’t want to be seen as a “slut” or responsible for her actions.

Balinthazy first appeared on the premiere episode of Shields’ podcast alongside an antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and again by himself in November 2024. On his first appearance, Balinthazy promoted well-worn antisemitic conspiracy theories accusing “a very small network of Jewish mafia” of being in control of world governments and the media. He also blamed Israel for orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and accused this “Jewish mafia” of promoting feminism, abortion, sexual promiscuity and pornography to “destroy Christian values.”

Gaines appeared in two episodes of the podcast in 2024, with Weekes joining him for his second appearance. Gaines and Weekes are the hosts of the male supremacist podcast Fresh & Fit, which primarily traffics in regressive and extremist views about women and has increasingly embraced antisemitism and white nationalism.  

In December 2024, Gaines told Shields that women are children who lack the capacity to be treated as equal to men. “You got to protect women from themselves,” he claimed. “Like, they’re indecisive, they’re bad decision-makers, a lot of times they’re stupid.” Gaines added, “The Taliban was right about these hoes,” before saying women should not vote, have rights or access education. Gaines then admitted this is “an extreme response to feminism, but the more I see what’s going on in the Western world the more I realize, damn, these n—— in caves were right.”

Gaines and Weekes are Black but have chosen to ally themselves with the white nationalist movement, regularly platforming white nationalists and defending their racist views on social media. Gaines doubled down on his defense of racism, telling Shields that “Racism is a reality.” Gaines went on to claim that “white supremacy is a myth” and blamed “Black culture” as the true force holding back the Black community. He then asserted, “Blacks actually did better under Jim Crow.” 

Shields and the white nationalist movement

Longtime white nationalists have also appeared on Shields’ podcast, including Duke, Nick Fuentes and Thomas Rousseau. Duke has been involved in the white power movement since the 1970s. He led a neo-Nazi group and then a faction of the Ku Klux Klan before starting the National Association for the Advancement of White People, which was his effort to rebrand anti-Black racism as white positivity. Duke appeared on Shields’ show in November 2024, when he spread lies about Jewish control of media and minimized the violence used by the Klan. Hatewatch found the episode featuring Duke on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Shields apparently did not publish this episode to YouTube.

Shields interviewed Fuentes in September 2024. Fuentes leads the white nationalist America First Foundation and produces a show on his own livestreaming platform. In a February 2022 livestream, Fuentes said, “I’m just like Hitler.” He added, “All I want is revenge against my enemies and a total Aryan victory.” On Shields’ show, Fuentes mentioned Black crime rates, a popular talking point for white nationalists.  Fuentes then recited a long-debunked theory tied to the 19^th-century eugenics movement that suggested social concepts of racial differences are in fact based in biological facts about racial groups. He said, “The world is a big place full of distinct races, tribes, religions, and these identities people have, and their ideas, they matter.” This notion is a standard talking point within the white nationalist movement used to rationalize racial segregation and present a positive spin to its racial hatred. Hatewatch did not find the episode featuring Fuentes on YouTube. Shields published this podcast episode to Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Rousseau, the leader of the white nationalist hate group Patriot Front, appeared on Shields’ podcast in December 2024. Patriot Front is the most active white nationalist group in the U.S. and conducts racist flyering efforts, banner drops and flash rallies to target its perceived enemies and gain media attention. Many of the group members have violent histories, and the group has destroyed dozens of murals around the U.S. that honor famous Black Americans, LGBTQ+ pride and migrant cultures.  Before the interview, Shields trained with several Patriot Front members, including the leader of Patriot Front’s fight club, Patria Gloria. Shields published his interview of Rousseau to Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

After Rousseau appeared on Shields’ program, Patria Gloria’s Telegram channel shared photographs of its training with Shields and marketed Patriot Front as a group for men who “are seeking opportunities to travel, train and meet fighters of renown from across the world.” Shields lists Patriot Front’s Telegram channel under the description of the episode on YouTube, telling his followers, “You can find more information about the organization on their website.”

In his text exchange with Hatewatch, Shields did not address the question about why he chose to platform and advertise Patriot Front on his show.

Moderation and policy enforcement

Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube each have their own content moderation policies that attempt to limit the spread of dehumanizing, violent and threatening language targeting individuals or groups based on their immutable characteristics. For instance, Spotify’s platform rules prohibit content that “advocates or glorifies serious physical harm towards an individual or group.”

Despite those policies that ban violent rhetoric, on his Dec. 29, 2024, episode, Shields advocated violence against health care providers who provide care to transgender children. He said, “All the doctors and therapists that help push trans kids, they should all be publicly executed … and I hold by what I said.” He then explained he intentionally cut this line from the YouTube version of the episode, explicitly acknowledging Spotify’s weak enforcement of its own rules.  

When asked about whether he intentionally avoids publishing some content on certain platforms, Shields responded, “Yes I don’t publish some content on some platforms because they are anti American and oppose free speech.”

Shields also appears to violate policies that prohibit the promotion of hate groups such as the Klan, Patriot Front and America First Foundation. Stephen Rea, a senior researcher with the Critical Internet Studies Institute, told Hatewatch over email that platforms adopt policies that are intentionally vague. Rea pointed out that while the use of identity-based slurs and interviews of leaders of violent hate groups may violate community guidelines, the decisions and enforcement ultimately need to come from the platforms themselves.

Rea said content that glorifies violence raises important questions about the role social media companies play in platforming hate. “No one has an inalienable right to earn revenue by being hateful, nor an inalienable right to have their hateful views published by a private entity.”

Despite regularly laundering bigoted views and antisemitic conspiracy theories on his podcast while platforming violent extremists, Shields’ videos are still eligible for monetization on YouTube. In fact, he even uses his YouTube channel to showcase merchandise, including several shirts with the phrase “There is no political solution” — a popular slogan among far-right activists who advocate for the use of violence — over a skull for $27.99.

YouTube’s spokesperson confirmed that Shields’ videos are eligible for monetization and added, “If we find content that violates our policies we take action — which means we may remove ads from serving on a particular video, or in some cases suspend a creator from the YouTube Partner Program.” Asked about whether selling the shirt that apparently advocates violence violated their policies, the spokesperson responded, “No.”

Rea, the researcher, told Hatewatch, “If a channel routinely, or primarily, hosts and promotes hateful ideologies, it should be delisted in search, deprioritized by the platform’s algorithmic recommenders and demonetized, including disallowing the creator from posting links to crowdfunding accounts, PayPal, or crypto wallets … the platform should remove all thumbnails or branding from the channel and its content, basically making it less visible and less desirable for potential listeners. Platforms can send a message about their values by the extent they choose to make certain channels and creators visible or not.”

In a text sent a day after Hatewatch reached out for comment, Shields shared a screenshot to an opinion article written by a former member of an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group, then issued a threat, writing, “Payback is coming. We are down [sic] being bullied and abused by you demons.”

Image at top: On his podcast, Jake Shields’ guests have included antisemitic conspiracy theorists, male supremacists and white nationalists, many of whom have been banned from popular podcasting platforms. Illustration by the SPLC (screenshot from YouTube)