Antifa has been subjected to a smear campaign by elements of the far right. In August 2017 the image of British actress Anna Friel portraying a battered woman in a 2007 Women's Aid anti-domestic violence campaign was re-purposed using fake Antifa Twitter accounts organized by way of 4chan, an investigation by Bellingcat found. The image is captioned "53% of white women voted for Trump, 53% of white women should look like this" and includes the Antifa flag; another image featuring an injured woman is captioned "She chose to be a Nazi. Choices have consequences," and includes the hashtag #PunchANazi. Investigator Elliot Higgins remarked to the BBC that "This was a transparent and quite pathetic attempt, but I wouldn't be surprised if white nationalist groups try to mount more sophisticated attacks in the future."[44]
In August 2017 The White House petitioning system We the People gathered more than 100,000 signatures requesting Antifa be classified as a terrorist organization in three days, and perforce shall receive an official review and response from the White House; at over 300,000 signatures, it is currently the third most-signed submission posted.[45] The originator, who goes by the nom de plume Microchip, said to Politico that getting conservatives to share and discuss the petition was the entire point, rather than prompting any concrete action by the government.