FBI cuts ties with civil rights watchdog SPLC after conservative pressure

As part of its effort to distance itself from organizations it accuses of political bias, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States has announced that it will no longer cooperate with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

FBI Director Kash Patel declared on social media that “every kinship with the SPLC has formally been ended.”

According to Patel, “The Southern Poverty Law Center has long since abandoned its work on civil rights and evolved into a partisan smear machine.”

He criticized the interactive “hate map” at the center, which lists organizations linked to anti- and anti-government activities and lists their locations.

Their so-called “hate map” has been used to denigrate the majority of Americans and even sparks violence. They are unfit for any FBI partnership because of their scandalous track record, Patel claimed.

This week, the FBI has severed ties with a group that aims to track threats to civil rights, with Patel’s announcement.

The FBI also cut ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), accusing the anti-Semitism watchdog and Jewish advocacy group of spying on conservatives on Thursday.

At a time when Patel is reshaping the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency in a hurry, the announcements represent a radical rethink of long-standing FBI collaborations with prominent civil rights organizations.

Both organizations have provided research on domestic extremism, law enforcement training, and other services over the years. Some conservatives have also criticized them for what they claim is an unfair distortion of their beliefs.

Following Charlie Kirk’s murder, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was the target of that criticism. After Kirk’s shooting, there was a new focus on the SPLC’s portrayal of Turning Point USA, a group Kirk founded.

In a report titled “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2024,” the SPLC described the organization as a “case study in the hard right.”

Elon Musk, among others, expressed outrage at the SPLC this week over how Kirk and the organization were described.

Musk remarked, “It is unacceptable to encourage violence by evil propaganda organizations like SPLC.” Without going into further detail, he continued, “This is killing innocent people.”

In a statement released on Friday, Patel’s comments were not directly addressed by the SPLC, a legal and advocacy organization that was established in 1971.

The spokesperson added that the organization has been collecting information from the public for decades and that it is still “committed to uncovering hate and extremism as we work to educate communities and protect the rights and safety of marginalized people.”

Even before Patel’s announcement, the SPLC’s far-right critics have been active.

Republicans have long accused the SPLC of unfairly excluding conservatives. Senators James Lankford and Chuck Grassley pleaded with the FBI to end ties with the group in October 2023, calling it biased and unreliable. They also referred to faith-based and conservative organizations as “hate groups.”