The White House used Spider-Man imagery in an Instagram post promoting Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations, portraying ICE agents as “friendly neighbourhood” figures. The post is notable for again linking the administration’s immigration messaging to a major pop-culture franchise, potentially raising questions about the use of copyrighted characters and brands in political communications.

The image showed Spider-Man’s hand firing a web towards people depicted as detainees, alongside the message that “criminal aliens” would be caught and deported. It appeared while Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day had passed $1 billion globally; Sony and Disney had not responded to requests for comment. The article also notes that the White House previously shared an image of Donald Trump as Superman during the release of a recent Superman film.