Opinion | "White Lives Matter" protests are failing. And here's one big reason why.

Extremist groups communicate, build their communities and raise money for their operations in much the same way that any other businesses or organizations do. The Proud Boys designed and sold T-shirts, hats and sweatshirts through e-commerce platforms like Amazon, TeeSpring and Etsy — until activists got them banned. Super Fun Happy America, a right-wing group whose leader and several members have been charged with storming the Capitol, still runs an online store.

Meanwhile, a recent analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and the Global Disinformation Index found that 73 U.S.-based hate groups were using payment services like Stripe, Square, PayPal and Facebook's donation tools to run their white nationalist, anti-LGBTQ and militia organizations.