Lokteff moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in entertainment. She initially worked as a model before transitioning into the music and film industries. According to Lokteff, she left because she was "too creative" to work in industries where entertainment projects were rejected by executives for being "too deep" or threatening to "wake people up".[3]
Lokteff returned to Bend, Oregon to her family. In the early 2000s, the Lokteff family created Piggyback Records, a home-run label and recording studio. Lokteff and her brother started performing as a duo named Thirty Day Notice, with Lokteff doing all of the singing. After a few years, Piggyback's business faltered, and Lokteff went with her brother to Fiji. During her time overseas, Lokteff discovered Red Ice, a website run by Henrik Palmgren.[3]
Red Ice and promotion of white supremacy
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Red Ice started in 2003 covering the paranormal and conspiracy theories before shifting to white nationalism and antisemitism. Lokteff and Palmgren have been jointly cited as an influential introduction to white nationalism by members of the far-right.[8] Red Ice shifted around 2012 in response to what the couple perceived as "anti-white sentiment" coinciding with the Black Lives Matter movement.[2]
Following the election of Donald Trump in 2016, Lokteff has attempted to increase the number of white women involved in the predominantly male-dominated alt-right movement,[1] advocating for them to play a supporting role to men.[5][11] Lokteff opposes feminism, claiming that it has made life more difficult for men and that feminism's goals of equality have already been achieved.[1] She has also criticized some of the women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault.[9]New York magazine describes her as a "looks-obsessed eugenicist", quoting her as saying "The alt-right is a very attractive, very sexy bunch ... Matches are being made left and right of beautiful, intelligent couples. It's a eugenic process."[12]
In 2018, Lokteff was a guest on the podcast of a Florida schoolteacher who used the pseudonym Tiana Dalichov.[13][14] She used the podcast to encourage white nationalists to become schoolteachers to influence children.[15]
In October 2019, Red Ice's YouTube channel was banned for hate speech violations. The channel had about 330,000 subscribers. Lokteff and Red Ice promoted a backup channel in an attempt to circumvent the ban.[16][17] A week later, the backup channel was also removed by YouTube.[18][19] In November 2019, Facebook banned Red Ice from using its platform.[20]
"The Women Behind The 'Alt-Right'". NPR.org. NPR. Archived from the original on October 17, 2019. Retrieved December 28, 2020. Lana Lokteff, pictured, runs an alt-right media company to promote her white nationalist ideologies
"Lana Lokteff: Poster girl of white supremacy". Arab News. December 29, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2022. For proof, one need look no further than the anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic rhetoric of American white supremacist Lana Lokteff.
^Gias, Hannah (October 23, 2019). "YouTube Yanks Second Red Ice Channel". HateWatch. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on October 25, 2019. Retrieved October 27, 2019.