WHAT WAS CLAIMED
An automatically funded Antifa debit card is available for rioters.
OUR VERDICT
False. The "Antifa membership card" is a joke sticker that can be downloaded from a German website.
AAP FACTCHECK - Social media users are falsely claiming there's an Antifa debit card that agitators can use to access funds after "looting, rioting and gang stalking".
The card is produced by a German satirical website, which sells stickers to place over genuine cards.
The claims about the card were fact-checked by Reuters as early as 2020 during Donald Trump's first presidential term, when he claimed the movement had instigated violent demonstrations in US cities.
The post has made a reappearance on social media against the backdrop of protests in Los Angeles sparked by mass arrests by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Most of the posts show a picture of a debit card with the word ANTIFAmily at the top, and ANTIFASCHISTISCHE around the card's main logo. The background appears to show a crowd massing for a protest.
One Facebook post, shared by an user who appears to be based in Australia, features an image which claims: "Ever seen an Antifa debit card that can automatically be funded after looting, rioting, and gang stalking? Here's what it looks like."
The user added in the caption: "Ever wondered who funds these riots? Heres an ANTIFA debit card."
The joke card dates back to at least 2020 and can be found at antifamily-card.de.
Dr Maureen Gallagher, a German studies and language expert at the Australian National University, confirmed the website states that the card is an exclusively satirical joke product without any inherent function.
The products are stickers produced by the group Hooligans Gegen Satzbau, identified as HoGeSatzbau in the footer of the page.
The initiative fought internet hate and right-wing extremism with satire on social media from 2014 to 2022, according to an article by Vorwärts, a German Social Democratic newspaper, for which Dr Gallagher confirmed the translation.
The antifamily-card site provides a link to an instruction PDF that directs users how to cut out the downloadable "membership card" and stick it to a genuine card.
The sticker can be purchased for 2.99 euros ($A5.30).
"Decorate your world the way you like it!" the page says. "With the sticker made of durable vinyl you can stick smooth surfaces such as your laptop, your car, furniture and much more.
"The sticker is waterproof and can be removed from most surfaces without adhesive residue."
It adds: "You should never insert a card with the sticker applied into an ATM, as the sticker could come off and impair the ATM's functionality."
Mr Trump has previously said he wanted to have Antifa designated as a terror group.
However, former FBI director Chris Wray told US congress in 2020 that Antifa was an ideology, not an organisation.
The same point was made in a 2024 SBS report by Australian academic Troy Whitford of Charles Sturt University.
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