Illustrative.

Tech giant Facebook has failed to heed warnings that a far-right network involving 80,000 activists continues to use both the Facebook and Instagram platforms to raise funds, according to a new report issued on Monday.

Headlined “Hatebook,” the report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate — a London-based NGO —  argued that it was “a sign of the impunity with which modern Fascists radicalize, recruit and finance on Facebook and Instagram that they feel comfortable using the platforms to sell branded merchandise, as though they were mainstream brands.”

Pulling no punches, the report continued: “Popular and mainstream brands are unlikely to be aware that their advertisements appear next to extreme Neo-Nazi material on Facebook and Instagram, especially as they have been reassured that countermeasures are in place. Governments will be appalled that their counter-extremism efforts are being undermined so openly.”

The report claimed that Facebook “was told about this specific problem two years ago but failed to take action.”

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It added: “The scale of their inaction means it would not be unreasonable to conclude that it ‘knows and intends’ that its platforms are used for such purposes. Instead, it has allowed the development of a network of over forty Fascist and Neo-Nazi Facebook pages and Instagram accounts, with a total of 80,000 followers, hawking merchandise.”

The report alleged that “this Fascist finance network is intimately linked with two violent neo-Nazi extremist movements operating out of Ukraine: Azov Battalion and Misanthropic Division. Both groups have sought to export their ideology to Western countries, gain followers and incite violence.”

Merchandise available through the network includes Nazi and SS symbols as well as stickers praising Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager under investigation for shooting dead two Black Lives Matter protesters in Wisconsin in August.