Fashion against Fascism Fights Spread of Extremism in Fashion Ecommerce

Hamburg-based non-profit organisation Laut gegen Nazis e.V. (Noise against Nazis) and Berlin ad agency Jung von Matt are launching a new online database to fight the spread of coded far-right language and symbols in fashion ecommerce. 

In partnership with online fashion marketplaces including Zalando and Spread Group, 'Fashion against Fascism', an initiative devised by Jung von Matt, helps online fashion brands curb the spread of right-wing extremist messages on their sites through the world’s the largest online database for Nazi codes. 

The specially-created database consists of more than 200 codes that are being used by far-right extremists to spread hate. The database is curated and constantly updated with insider information and anonymous user input on ever-changing and newly emerging Nazi codes. A web crawler makes it easy for brands to check whether such codes are spreading through their own online marketplace without them knowing it. The database can be used by any brand that joins the initiative, thanks to its Application Programming Interface (API). 

Other fashion brands signed up to the initiative include About You, Avocadostore, baur, bonprix, Fast Forward and Underpressure. In an open letter (in the assets link), the initiative invites the global fashion industry to take action and sign up to the initiative.

The launch of the database follows the globally acclaimed 'Recht gegen Rechts' campaign from Laut gegen Nazis e.V and Jung von Matt to fight Nazi codes.

The idea for the 'Fashion against Fascism' database was developed by Jung von Matt. The initiative is also supported by 02100 Digital, which programmed the database, and the Berlin branch of the Swedish communications agency Redgert Comms.  

Together with Laut gegen Nazis e.V., the agencies are working pro bono in order to counter the rise of far-right ideologies in Germany, against which hundreds of thousands of people are demonstrating nationwide.

Simon Knittel, executive creative director at Jung von Matt, said, "Right against Right" has shown how we can effectively act against Nazi codes with a simple trick. With "Fashion against Fascism," we’re taking the next step. The intensive research we did and the trust and attention we were able to build with the success of “Right against Right” has led us to this hugely important initiative.”

Jörn Menge, chairman of Laut gegen Nazis e.V., said, "Experience from the 'Recht gegen Rechts' campaign has shown that trademark law also reaches its limits in the fight against Nazis. But we aren’t satisfied with that. Where the legislator is not able to act sufficiently against the spread of right-wing extremist hate messages, we are now doing something. We also want to motivate other players in the fashion industry to get involved to help to create a safe environment for everyone."

Pascal Brun, vice president sustainability and diversity and inclusion at Zalando, said, "Zalando stands for diversity, inclusion, respect and openness. The 'Fashion against Fascism' initiative is a valuable addition to the strict product, content and brand guidelines we already have in place. Integrating the data from this new open source database into our systems will allow us to more actively combat right-wing extremism and its ever-changing symbols on our platform. We hope that our initial alliance with other players in the fashion industry will continue to grow in order to send a clear signal against right-wing extremist ideas. Only together can we prevent products with questionable imprints from being distributed or sold.” 

The database will be utilised in a similar way at Spread Group, the global provider of customised fashion and lifestyle products, making even more difficult for people to print garments with Nazi codes.

Julian de Grahl, CEO of the Spread Group, said, "As an open platform, we defined community standards a long time ago and established review processes to exclude discriminatory or inflammatory content. A larger team uses a multi-stage, software-supported review process to ensure that anti-democratic motifs or texts are not published and produced on our platform in the first place. The 'Fashion against Fascism' initiative helps us to join forces to prevent the spread of right-wing extremist symbols and to react automatically and on a daily basis to newly developed symbols. Our support for the open source database demonstrates our commitment to finding innovative ways to actively combat hate and discrimination.”