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Jon Zherka

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Misogynistic manosphere influencers embrace Nazism

Influencers who offer dubious lifestyle and dating advice to men are praising Adolf Hitler and Nazis

WRITTEN BY JUSTIN HOROWITZ

PUBLISHED 03/13/24

Right-wing “manosphere” influencers including Sneako, Jon Zherka, and Myron Gaines are embracing Nazism and defending Adolf Hitler online. These influencers — who have large followings across multiple platforms — have histories of making antisemitic comments and pushing conspiracy theories about Jewish people, but their pro-Hitler and Nazism commentary marks an escalation.

Over the past year, these three figures have praised and defended Hitler, done the Nazi Seig Heil salute while streaming, and refused to disavow Nazism.

These influencers are part of the manosphere, an online community of right-wing websites, bloggers, and personalities cultivating a worldview based on conservative and regressive gender politics repackaged for the internet age.

While purporting to provide dating, financial, and lifestyle advice to men, some manosphere figures are aligning themselves with far-right personalities. Their online presence can serve as a gateway to push audiences further to the right toward more dangerous ideologies, as they often use other topics that interest young men — like weightlifting, video games, and boxing — to draw viewers in before diving into extremist content and misogyny.

Figures in this group often push extremism and antisemitism while blaming women for myriad societal woes and treating them as an inferior sex. Rhetoric from these influencers can sometimes be overtly cruel and promote hitting, degrading, and shaming women.

Sneako

Right-wing streamer Sneako (real name Nico Kenn De Balinthazy) is a manosphere influencer and associate of pro-Hitler rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West). He has been described as “a cheap imitation” of misogynist, media personality, and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate.

Sneako is also an associate of white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. He spoke at one of Fuentes’ antisemitic rallies. He is banned on TikTok and YouTube and has promoted the abuse of women.

Sneako recently interviewed Nevada Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony at an event for former President Donald Trump. Several attendees also pointed out that Sneako is one of Fuentes’ associates.

On several occasions, Sneako has praised, defended, and embraced Adolf Hitler and Nazism.

While probing a German woman about her sex life in a stream uploaded to X, Sneako made antisemitic comments and said he wanted to do the fascist Roman salute “so bad.”

“How about we role play,” Sneako said. “I’ll be the Nazi and I’ll shove you in the oven like a dirty Jew.”

Video

CitationVideo via @RedPillSayian on X, uploaded on March 5, 2024

On X (formerly Twitter), Sneako posted a picture of Hitler and wrote, “this nigga had aura.”

Sneako Hitler had aura

CitationScreenshot via X

During a livestream on the right-wing video hosting platform Rumble, Sneako said that “the Nazis had drip” and that the swastika is “aesthetically pleasing.”

Video

CitationFrom a December 2, 2022, Sneako Rumble livestream

While livestreaming with influencer Adin Ross, Sneako refused to call Hitler evil.

Video

CitationVideo via @DramaAlert on X, uploaded on April 12, 2023

Sneako wrote on X that people should not “bash” Hitler for killing Jewish people and wished him a happy birthday.

Sneako "don't bash" Hitler

CitationScreenshot via X

Jon Zherka & Myron Gaines

Self-proclaimed woman-hater and manosphere influencer Jon Zherka, who has flirted with underage girls online, been praised by Fuentes, and shared content promoting violent attacks against women, has also embraced Nazism.

Zherka instructed a group of women to do a Nazi Sieg Heil during a livestream and say “heil Hitler.”

Video CitationVideo from @AFPost on X, uploaded on February 21, 2024

During a livestream debate about Israel featuring Zherka, Fuentes, white nationalist Vincent James Foxx, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, and Rumble streamer Elijah Schaffer, Zherka did a Nazi Sieg Heil salute.

Video CitationFrom the January 11, 2024, edition of Slightly Offensive with Elijah Schaffer

In a bizarre livestream video posted to Reddit, Zherka melted down after finding out a woman he was hanging out with is Jewish. “You rule the world and all the banking,” he said to the woman while pretending to hit her.

After the woman said “I don’t like Hitler,” Zherka asked, “The fuck is wrong with you?” He later added, “I’ll regret this, dude.”

Zherka ended the livestream by saying “Hitler was a good guy.”

Video file

VideoCitationFrom a Jon Zherka livestream, uploaded to Reddit

Zherka again did the Nazi Sieg Heil alongside Fuentes and manosphere influencer Myron Gaines (real name Amrou Fudl) during a livestream. Gaines then pretended to be Hitler’s ghost.

Antifeminist influencer Hannah Pearl Davis was also featured on the stream.

Video file

VideoCitationFrom a June 2023 Sneako Rumble livestream

During a stream with Sneako, Zherka identified himself as a Nazi while attacking a man’s appearance.

“You look like a Nazi that became a Nazi just to fit in,” Zherka said. “Like, you’re not actually one of us.”

Video file

Video CitationFrom TikTok user @RedPillClips, uploaded on July 20, 2023

Gaines previously defended and praised Hitler on his Fresh & Fit After Hours podcast.

“Though he did things that were morally incorrect, he definitely did a bunch of things correct for his country. That’s a fact,” Gaines said.

Video Citation From the July 7, 2023, edition of Fresh & Fit After Hours, streamed on Rumble

Influence on young people

Reporting shows how easily toxic rhetoric from manosphere influencers can infiltrate the minds of young audiences, even among users as young as 11.

And some of the videos these manosphere influencers share, showing them meeting their fans, demonstrate just how young some of these viewers are.

In one clip, young Sneako fans repeat his toxic rhetoric back to him, saying, “Fuck the women,” and, “All gays can die.” He seems to half-jokingly ask the camera, “What have I done?”

This sort of misogynistic and extremist rhetoric does not live in a vacuum online; it can lead to real-world violence and harassment.

mma 1 24

misogynistic “manosphere” influencers including Andrew Tate, Sneako, and Jon Zherka are promoting violence against women and finding virality on TikTok via fan accounts posting their content. Some of these figures, including Sneako and Zherka, have over 100 fan accounts dedicated to sharing their toxic content, making it difficult for the platform to moderate and track the hateful rhetoric that these figures push.

While manosphere influencers themselves are not posting their content to TikTok, their large fan bases are flooding the platform with these influencers’ misogynistic and toxic content. This method — using swaths of devotees to overrun a platform with a particular figure’s content — is not new and has been used by fans of white nationalist and conspiracy theorist figures on TikTok to promote fringe and extremist content. TikTok has not successfully counteracted the massive fan account uploads that violate its Community Guidelines.

These influencers are part of the manosphere, an online community of right-wing websites, bloggers, and personalities cultivating a worldview based on conservative and regressive gender politics repackaged for the internet age.

Figures in this group often push extremism and antisemitism while blaming women for myriad societal woes and treating them as an inferior sex. Rhetoric from these influencers can sometimes be overtly cruel and promote hitting, degrading, and shaming women.

Manosphere personalities use other topics that interest young men — like weightlifting, video games, and boxing — to draw in viewers before diving into extremist content and misogyny, creating a dangerous pipeline for their fans.

TikTok is a uniquely dangerous place for these influencers to infiltrate, as the platform is extremely popular with kids and teens — one survey found that phone users aged 11-17 spend a median time of one hour and 52 minutes per day on the app. Additionally, TikTok’s For You Page algorithm feeds toxic content to users even if they are not seeking it out, which could lead to accidental radicalization; an issue that already plagues men who fall prey to the extreme online communities.}:

Misogynistic content has previously been singled out as an “enforcement gap” on TikTok, meaning the platform has struggled to moderate content that has promoted sexism. According to TikTok’s Community Guidelines, it does “not allow sexual exploitation or gender-based violence, including non-consensual sexual acts, image-based sexual abuse, sextortion, physical abuse, and sexual harassment."

examples of manosphere influencers promoting violence on TikTok}:

In one video, right-wing streamer Sneako (real name Nico Kenn De Balinthazy) is seen hitting a woman in the face. “Yeah, she’s been acting up all night,” he says in response to an onlooker asking if he hit her.

CitationTikTok video uploaded by user @n3on_kicktv

Additionally, Sneako has refused to condemn Adolf Hitler and attacked Jewish people online, saying that “the Nazis had drip” and that the swastika is “aesthetically pleasing.” He is also an associate of white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and spoke at one of Fuentes’ antisemitic rallies.

And in various TikTok videos, self-proclaimed woman-hater and manosphere influencer Jon Zherka is seen promoting violence against women. Zherka has previously described Hitler as a “good guy,” praised Fuentes, flirted with underage girls online, and shared content promoting violent attacks and abuse against women.

During one video, Zherka claimed that it is acceptable to beat a woman if he is fighting a couple over public displays of affection.

“If you’re a straight dude doing all that fucking nasty shit, making out with your girl at the park, I try and fight both of them, at the same time,” Zherka said. “I go, you know, it’s a two verse one, so I guess I can hit a woman."

“We need some Saudi energy,” Zherka continued. “We need to start cutting tongues for this kind of shit."

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CitationTikTok video uploaded by user @jonzherkaa

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CitationTikTok video uploaded by user @redpillvault

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CitationTikTok video uploaded by user @ZherkaOnTop

For example, there are 6.4 billion views under the “sneako” hashtag on the platform, and 2 billion under the hashtag “sneakoclips.”

Many of the Tate-associated hashtags have millions of views.

Now several other manosphere influencers have similar fan account networks.

These accounts regularly repost content from manosphere influencers and share links that are associated with these personalities. It is unclear if these networks of fan accounts are connected or acting independently.

According to a Media Matters analysis, there are over 175 fan accounts dedicated to Sneako on TikTok.

There are likely fewer accounts and hashtags dedicated to Tate despite his fame because TikTok has previously pledged to crack down on the influencer’s content on the platform.

The videos of these manosphere influencers meeting their fans are a reminder of just how young some of these viewers and devotees are.

Some bad actors are getting better at dodging moderation and are using terms that may not be picked up by the platform's “automated moderation technology,” an AI tool used by TikTok to determine if content violates the Community Guidelines. Human content moderators should take precedence when uploaded content concerns the manosphere or any influencer in this space, and should be reviewed more than once to ensure that violent and misogynistic content is not slipping through the cracks, and on to millions of young users’ screens.

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