John Cena has a rosy reputation: a beloved 16-time professional wrestler, a blockbuster movie star, and the Guinness World Record holder for the most wishes granted through the Make-A-Wish Foundation (he’s the organization’s most-wished-for celebrity), in the public eye he’s an all-American entertainer.
So why is he following prominent white supremacist, anti-Semitic, and hate accounts on X (formerly Twitter)? Probably not intentional. If, as is more than likely, these accounts were indiscriminately followed by Cena’s team without knowing what content they were sharing, it underscores a crucial brand safety issue at X since Musk took over the platform in 2022. By drastically limiting moderation, welcoming back banned users, algorithmically boosting paid verified accounts, and promising far-right ideologues the privilege of absolute “free speech,” Musk created favorable conditions for misinformation and hate speech to spread—and for engagement to increase. And while following a toxic account cannot be considered a de facto endorsement (many of the feeds mentioned in this article are tracked by misinformation researchers, for example), it can be dangerous for those with a particular image to protect.
Like many celebrities, Cena has an X-account primarily for promotional purposes: His latest tweets promote his new Prime Video action comedy. Jackpot! Unlike most celebrities, however, Cena follows a ton of users on the site—currently more than 850,000. (Full disclosure: This reporter is one of them.) A handful of major accounts are known for casting such a wide social net for whatever reason; actor Taye Diggs and host Soledad O’Brien also follow hundreds of thousands. It stands to reason that none of these people can keep up with everything on their feed, and it would also be understandable if they followed many of these accounts without carefully reviewing their content. It’s also likely that social media editors or teams manage these public profiles on behalf of the celebrities.
But given Cena’s personality — and the hashtag #RiseAboveHate in his bio — it’s odd to see him follow someone like Andrew Torba, the anti-Semitic CEO of Gab, a social media haven for white nationalists and neo-Nazis. Or Steve Sailer, a notorious eugenicist who writes for the anti-immigrant hate website VDARE. (Both Diggs and O’Brien follow him, whether intentionally or not.) Or Erin Elizabeth, a “health” influencer who claims more people have died from vaccinations than in the Holocaust. (A spokesperson for Cena did not respond to a request for comment on the list of the many far-right accounts he follows.)
While O’Brien and Diggs have their share of questionable followers, Cena’s account is the absolute bomb — and it’s not just the prominent hate accounts and conspiracy theorists. He follows more obscure, often anonymous (but verified) users who openly attack Jews, blacks, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community. Take “Gentile News Network,” for example, which posts almost exclusively anti-Semitic content (Cena even follows other random small accounts that retweet this material). “People keep blaming @ElonMusk for allowing anti-Semitism at X,” this user tweeted on Sunday. “But he only gave people a modicum of free speech. It just turns out most people were already anti-Semitic, they were just censored.” Another blue-check account Cena follows, @ViolentSavages, posts videos of black people fighting and adds racist comments. The user describes the page as a “pro-white” account and recently expressed sympathy for a white woman screaming the N-word in a video, writing, “What years of N-fatigue does to a person.”
Other people on Cena’s wanted list include: Keith Woods, an Irish YouTuber with ties to white nationalists Richard Spencer and Nick Fuentes; Jory Micah, an influencer who shares anti-Semitic memes and conspiracy theories under the guise of pro-Gaza activism (she is also followed by Diggs and O’Brien); H. Pearl Davis, an “anti-feminist” influencer who has given Nick Fuentes a platform; Graham Linehan, a former television writer who was previously banned from Twitter for transphobic comments; Josh Lekach, a livestreamer and sports drink entrepreneur who posts racist comments and memes (followed by Diggs); Ryan Dawson, a Holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist; Isabella Maria DeLuca, an influencer who spreads misinformation about vaccines and promotes the white genocide conspiracy theory; Jake Shields, a former UFC fighter who asked why we can’t “discuss” the facts of the Holocaust and claimed it’s “the only historical event we’re not allowed to question”; Val Venis (real name Sean Allen Morley), a former professional wrestler and anti-vaxxer who demonizes LGBTQ people and believes George Soros is smuggling immigrants into the U.S. (O’Brien is his successor); and Dom Lucre, a QAnon promoter who was once banned for sharing child sexual abuse material on X (Musk has restored his account).
Other pseudonymous accounts Cena follows include the misogynistic hate account “Women Being Awful,” as well as “Censored Men,” which originally existed to support misogynistic Manosphere star Andrew Tate, who is facing rape and human trafficking charges in Romania (which Tate denies) but focused on anti-Israel content after October 7, and “Canadian Patriot,” a self-proclaimed “nationalist” who posts racist memes and has tweeted that “race-mixing should be illegal.” Cena also follows the account for Suddenly diedan anti-vaccine conspiracy theory film that falsely claims people are dying from complications from Covid-19 vaccines. Their current pinned tweet absurdly claims that researchers have found “nanobots” in the vaccines.
Whoever manages Cena’s X activities should be more cautious about associating their name with these characters and causes, but it’s also clear that the collapse of moderation on X created an ecosystem where this stuff thrives and is now almost impossible to avoid. That sparked an exodus of advertisers who decided they didn’t want to buy space next to tweets from Nazis. Amid plummeting revenues, Musk has slammed those companies (at one point telling them “fuck you”) and filed lawsuits against the watchdog groups that have documented the rise of extremism on X/Twitter under his ownership. The first lawsuit, against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, was dismissed by a judge in March, while another, targeting Media Matters for America, is scheduled to go to trial in April 2025. X has additionally sued the advertisers themselves, accusing them of a “boycott” of the platform in violation of antitrust laws.
Cena is, of course, a brand in his own right, and equally vulnerable to unwanted associations with toxic elements of the site as long as he continues his social media strategy with mass followings. If the abundance of harmful and extremist garbage circulating on the site is not eventually addressed, will prominent celebrities need to reassess the risks of having a presence there? Musk would do well to allay such concerns for the biggest names on X, but his priorities tend to lie elsewhere. Perhaps he will file another lawsuit if enough of them delete their accounts.
