Are we unknowingly participating in a fascist marketing campaign?
When Visibility Serves the State: El Salvador, ICE, and the line between raising awareness and participating in an authoritarian PR campaign
by Megan Chopra & Jasmine Ramsey
Before we get into it: this isn’t about shaming anyone. We’re doing our best with what we know. This is more of a call-in. A chance to notice the ways we’ve been taught to echo state narratives. To slow down and remind ourselves that much of the way we are reacting is by design - that we can be more effective when we take the time to pause.
Virtually every time I open my feed, another image appears: shackled, shirtless men in dehumanizing conditions. Right now, there’s a justified urgency to raise awareness about these modern-day concentration camps.
It shouldn’t be lost on us that the viral videos and photos coming out of El Salvador’s prisons were not leaked. In fact, we should be very aware of the fact that they’re part of a state-sanctioned marketing campaign.
As more Americans reportedly trust content creators over legacy media, we have the opportunity to leverage our independence from institutions.
The elites who benefit from maintaining the status quo have long relied on the media to shape narratives that serve their interests. In order to set ourselves apart from the mainstream media, it is imperative we discuss the line between raising awareness and accidentally participating in an authoritarian PR campaign.
President Bukele’s administration wants these images of shackled, shirtless men to circulate. It is a tactic of psychological warfare - to make examples of real people with full lives, people whose loved ones are looking for them and mobilizing for them to come home safely. These ‘examples’ are intended to deter us all from public dissent, to scare us into compliance. When we share state-sanctioned images, we are not only participating in their planned campaign, but we are also doing their work for free: emboldening their allies, normalizing imagery of inhumanity in our feeds, and putting our communities in a freeze state.
They want you to see it. They want you to repeat it. And they want you to frame it as a GOP issue, or a singular right-wing issue rather than systemic. An issue that will be resolved when they have taken all who stand up to them or defy their agenda’s hostage.
We’ve already been desensitized to prison cruelty. That’s why it’s won’t raise enough alarms when we say “they’re kidnapping and imprisoning people”. That’s why we look at what’s happening in El Salvador and think, “Look at how bad this is.”
We forget that the carceral system is already violent, and already normalized. That’s the trap. We’ve accepted so much here in the U.S. that it takes this level of overt cruelty to shock us - there’s an underlying American exceptionalism that shows up in how people talk about it - “Wow, other countries are really extreme.” But the U.S. is the global leader in incarceration. Our carceral system is foundational and violent by design. This framing gives us permission to ignore the cages in our own backyard.
The fascist agenda benefits when we inadvertently normalize dehumanization. Seeing those images over and over desensitizes us to the cruelty, inhumanity, and state facilitated violence. To those who already are xenophobic or racist, it reinforces their belief that these humans are less than human.
This doesn’t let those in opposition to the fascist agenda off the hook - False dichotomies are essential to maintaining power. Propaganda thrives on simplicity and certainty — but complex issues rarely have simple answers. These either/or narratives are also how “manufactured consent” takes hold - they provide us with the illusion of two simple choices: reject this administration or accept a carceral state on steroids. This keeps us from holding the entire system accountable.
When raising awareness of inhumanity, constitutional crises, and human rights violations, it’s important to resist the urge to reactively share images and headlines, to point solely to the individual - like 47 or the Tesla CEO. When this is our reaction, it benefits an inhumane carceral system more than it benefits the people we are trying to help.
U.S. Parallels: What We Normalize, We Accept
And this is not new. The Jim Crow Museum documents how U.S. media used repetitive, demeaning images of Black people to justify systems of violence through slavery, segregation, and mass incarceration. Caricatures like the "brute" and "sambo" didn’t just reflect racism; they trained the public to accept and expect Black subjugation. When the media amplifies state-sanctioned visuals without context, we’re watching this unfold with immigration, incarceration, and deportation.
A 2023 review found that repeated exposure to dehumanizing prison imagery — especially when stripped of context — lowers public empathy and increases tolerance for punitive policies. The more often people see prisoners depicted as subhuman, the more likely they are to accept harsh punishment as normal or even necessary. That’s the power of repetition, or why Bukele’s media campaign is effective.
Today, some outlets are shifting. The AP now promotes person-first language. Editors are rethinking mugshots and sensational crime reporting. These are small but meaningful steps away from reinforcing state narratives.
To push back against carceral spectacle and fear-based narratives — especially in the context of U.S. deportations to El Salvador — The Sentencing Project has outlined ten guiding principles for ethical crime coverage. These recommendations are essential for content creators and journalists reporting on ICE detentions, wrongful deportations like Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s, and carceral exports like Trump’s proposed transfer of U.S. citizens to CECOT:
Avoid misleading language. Headlines about "legal”/“illegal” immigrants or "criminals" often reinforce xenophobia and mislead audiences. Instead, report the facts of ICE enforcement and deportation policy using specific, non-inflammatory terms.
Don’t amplify false or unsupported claims. Trump’s justification for deporting Venezuelans and threatening to send U.S. citizens to El Salvador was based on vague gang affiliations and fear tactics. Always fact-check official statements before repeating them.
Name systemic contributors to harm. Don’t frame migration or deportation as isolated legal problems. Instead, highlight root causes like U.S. foreign policy, economic instability, and anti-immigrant legislation that fuel displacement and criminalization.
Name systemic violence. The way our system captures and imprisons people is state violence. Name that clearly. The same goes for indefinite ICE detention and the use of 18th-century laws like the Alien Enemies Act.
Avoid dehumanization. Always humanize the people impacted. They don’t need to be called “criminals” or “aliens”. Refer to them as people: "asylum seekers," "residents," or "deported individuals" and explain the stakes of their removal.
Discourage carceral voyeurism. Sharing sensational footage of CECOT’s prisoners without context fuels public support for cruelty. Refrain from using dehumanizing imagery unless it’s necessary and framed with systemic critique.
Include broader sources. Don’t rely solely on ICE press releases or campaign soundbites. Feature voices from deported people, legal advocates, Salvadoran journalists, and community organizers who can speak to lived realities and systemic harm.
Contextualize rare events. Trump’s claim that U.S. citizens must be sent abroad due to crime should be covered as an extremist, unconstitutional outlier — not a viable or normalized policy idea. Highlight how rare and dangerous this proposal truly is.
Report the impact of policies. Look into the policies before 47 took office that made this possible. How our current mass incarceration and policing system has made this possible.
Respect the dignity of people harmed. The people in the photos of El Salvador’s prisons are not just a headline. If creators use their stories, they should center his humanity, legal rights, and the violation he experienced — not reduce him to a symbol or pawn in a political game.
Conclusion: Telling the Full Story
To change the system, we have to change the narrative. That means zooming out from sensational images and centering the structures that make those images possible. It means holding power accountable, not echoing its propaganda. And it means treating people — all people — with dignity, context, and care.
They also give audiences a way to engage beyond passive consumption of spectacle. Even in an op-ed format, pointing to examples of ethical storytelling or advocacy can inspire other content creators. For instance, independent outlets like El Faro in El Salvador or Prison Journalism Project in the U.S. are fostering coverage that “discourage[s] carceral voyeurism” and instead educates about the justice system’s realities.
To promote justice, it’s powerful to share stories that invert the usual script. Instead of only highlighting harm, media makers can highlight people working to change the system – e.g. profiles of prison educators, restorative justice programs, former prisoners turned activists, communities healing without relying on police. These narratives center solutions and humanity rather than just despair or fear.