Mike Cernovich

Mr. Cernovich is a blogger, author of books, YouTube personality and filmmaker with a far-right social media following. Much of his online persona is driven by two mottos: “conflict is attention” and “attention is influence.” He told The New Yorker, “I use trolling tactics to build my brand.” Before this week, he was perhaps best known for promoting false claims that Hillary Clinton was part of a pedophile ring located in the basement of a pizzeria. He describes himself as an “American nationalist” and has been involved in shaping alt-right messages on social media, according to The New Yorker. But he has denied being part of the alt-right movement, calling it “too obsessed with gossip and drama for my tastes” in a blog post. Mr. Cernovich started out several years ago as a men’s self-help writer whose work disdained feminism and promoted a message of men’s empowerment that often dwelled on the question of how to meet women. He has long been criticized for his argument that date rape is a liberal fiction. Mr. Cernovich now focuses mainly on politics. From his base in Southern California, he has become influential in parts of social media, helping to shape the far-right narrative. He uses a steady stream of tweets and videos to promote conspiracy theories and factually incorrect claims that he bills as hard-hitting journalism.