CyberWell, an online antisemitism database, released a new report that shows wide disparities in the types of antisemitism social platforms see - and in how much they remove.
CyberWell founder and CEO Tal-Or Cohen said the report was conducted as an attempt for social platforms to start taking hate speech more seriously.
“The fact that even the most vigilant social platform allows more than two-thirds of antisemitic posts to remain is more evidence that online antisemitism is not being taken seriously enough,” Cohen said. “Jewish social media users feel justifiably unsafe, and that won’t change until platforms prioritize enforcing their own terms of service.”
The report defines antisemitic content using the internationally recognized IHRA definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by more than 1,000 global entities, as well as the community guidelines it violates.
Antisemitism differs on each platform
Across the board, results showed that violent content was most unevenly distributed. Facebook users are most likely to see posts claiming that Jews control the world. On Twitter, users read that Jews are obsessed with money while YouTube is home to the conspiracy theory that Jews make up the mythical “Synagogue of Satan.”
Removal remains low across platforms, despite their clear violation of terms of service. Instagram was found to be particularly bad at this, with just 13% of antisemitic contact removed.
What is being done to combat online antisemitism?
In February, members of the Interparliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism sent a letter to senior executives of Meta, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok requesting “transparency and collaboration to address a surge in online hate corresponding with real-world attacks on the Jewish community.”
US Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Canadian Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather, and former Israeli Knesset Member Michal Cotler-Wunsh, are the co-chairs of the group. The task force includes additional members from the US, Canada, Israel, Australia, the UK, South Africa and New Zealand.
According to the office of Wasserman Schultz, each letter contains “a list of concrete recommendations for the platform, ranging from incorporating the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s working definition of antisemitism as a tool for content moderation to sharing data with Jewish advocacy organizations and law enforcement to prevent online extremism from mobilizing violence against Jews.”
The letters were addressed to Neil Potts, Vice President of Public Policy at Meta; Lauren Culbertson Grieco, Head of Government Affairs for US and Canada at Twitter; Kevin Kane, Director of Government Affairs at YouTube; and Eric Ebenstein, Senior Director of Public Policy at TikTok.
Omri Nahmias contributed to this report