• by Fern Siegel , April 9, 2024

The fight against fascism, particularly in the fashion realm, has gone digital.

German nonprofit Laut gegen Nazis e.V. (Noise against Nazis) and Berlin ad agency Jung von Matt have launched an online campaign: “Fashion against Fascism.”

By utilizing the world’s largest online database for Nazi codes, they are combating the spread of coded far-right language and symbols in fashion ecommerce.

The specially created database consists of more than 200 codes used by extremists to spread hate. The database, programmed by 02100 Digital, is curated and updated with insider information and anonymous user input. A web crawler allows brands to check if such codes are spreading through their online marketplace without their knowledge.

The database can be used by any brand that joins the initiative, done in partnership with ecommerce fashion giant Zalando and Spread Group, a global provider of fashion-lifestyle products.

Fashion brands already participating are: About You, Avocadostore, baur, bonprix, Fast Forward and Underpressure. The partners want the global fashion industry to take action and sign up. 

The effort is also supported by the Berlin branch of the Swedish communications agency Redgert Comms. 

Simon Knittel, executive creative director at Jung von Matt, said: The “Right against Right” campaign showed “how we can effectively act against Nazi codes with a simple trick." Together with Laut gegen Nazis, the agency secured trademark rights for German and international Nazi codes at the European trademark office. As the rightful owners, they brought Nazi shops to justice for the first time by pressuring them to remove and destroy the merchandise, while claiming compensation for each item sold.

The new database hopes to make it even harder for people to print garments with Nazi codes.

Julian de Grahl, CEO of the Spread Group, said: “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. The 'Fashion against Fascism' helps us react automatically and on a daily basis to newly developed symbols.”