White supremacist groups have found a home in North Idaho, distributing racist propaganda on the hoods of student’s cars last November and now utilizing social media as a platform to garner followers.

Deeming themselves “The White Knights of the North West,” or WKNW, some students were concerned about the creation of an Instagram account dedicated to seeking out individuals of color.

The account’s bio encouraged followers to DM the group to report “non-whites” in the Sandpoint, Sagle, and Priest River area, promising that all reports “will be investigated by the White Nights of the North West.”

The account also posted images promoting white power and containing derogatory slurs.

“I found out through an old Sandpoint alumni, her name was Adaye [Adéola] Ogbeide and basically there was just an Instagram site that was named White Knights of the Northwest and they were just throwing racial slurs and stuff like that,” Senior Riley Anderson said. 

The account was reported, but has allegedly resurfaced since it’s creation. 

“Several people have tried to report it and take it down and then it’s come back up a couple times,” said Anderson.

Though Instagram encourages free speech, the site sets certain limitations and reserves the right to review reports of threats.

“We want to foster a positive, diverse community. We remove content that contains credible threats or hate speech, content that targets private individuals to degrade or shame them, personal information meant to blackmail or harass someone, and repeated unwanted messages,” the company states in their community guidelines.