“How is it okay for people to tell me online they will find me in the streets of New York City and kill me?” asked the chef/TV personality and author (Eitan Eats the World).
He even deleted his TikTok for a week. “We were disappointed in how the systems were failing us,” he said.
Back in November, Bernath was one of 40 Jewish influencers and celebrities like Sacha Baron Cohen to criticize TikTok for its failure to moderate hateful content on its platform.
This week he was one of a number of social media influencers talking about “Voices Against Antisemitism: Influencers Shaping Change,” at ADL’s “Never Is Now” conference against antisemitism in New York. The influencers on the panel have audiences of 30 million people.
While many people are fighting an actual war, influencers are fighting a war online (and in their real lives).
“How have the platforms failed Jewish creators?” Bernath asked.
“I’ve experienced antisemitism online and in my actual life – not just online,” Orthodox influencer Miriam Ezagui (1.9 million followers on TikTok) said, noting that she’s had to contact the FBI.
On Instagram, she got a comment: “Fun fact: I hate Jews. You all have this evil look emanating from your eyes, it’s scary.” She reported it, then Instagram flagged her account and demonetized it. “I’m trying to bring more awareness to antisemitism Jewish people face every day... it feels like it’s accepted by society and not condoned. It’s not right. We need to stand up and advocate for ourselves.”
Ariel Martin, aka “Baby Ariel,” with 34.6 million followers on TikTok, has fought against cyberbullying since she was 14, but she was unprepared for the anti-Israel and antisemitic vitriol on her account after she posted anything about Jews, Israel, or the hostages.
“It was such an insane amount of hate,” she said at the panel.
In a TikTok interview of Rachel Goldberg, mother of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, commenters wrote: “I hate you,” “but you guys kill innocent children daily,” “Zionists are terrorists,” etc.
When Martin posted a TikTok this week, she said in her video: “But I urge you to be more intentional with your words and to take two seconds before making a video or commenting, and ask yourself, Is this going to help the antisemitism problem in the world?” If not, she said, “you probably shouldn’t post it, or comment on it or like it.”
Some are used to the hate
Some influencers are used to the online hate.
“When you make content and you get thousands of content every day, you get used to hate,” YouTube star Nuseir Yassin, aka Nas Daily (13.1 million followers on YouTube) said.
“The average human brain is used to 150 friends; then you have 3,000 friends on Facebook, and now it’s 22 million,” he said, noting that, growing up in a village in northern Israel, he was used to a significant amount of hate. “Thank God, it doesn’t affect me as much.”
Legal experts at another session also had advice for fighting antisemitism, cyberbullying, and misinformation.
“Who in this room, either themselves or a family member, has experienced cyberbullying?” Jeffrey Abrams, ADL regional director, Los Angeles, asked the audience at “Can Antisemitic and Other Hateful Content Be Moderated on Social Media?”
He cited a prewar ADL survey from June 2023, according to which 52% of people or their families had been harassed online.
After the war, one early ADL study of a week in October showed a 919% surge in antisemitism on X (but only 28% on Facebook).
“After October 7, we were thinking there would be more of a spread of different forms of antisemitism, but what we saw in the data – it was primarily classic tropes, talking about Jews controlling the government, Jews controlling finance,” said Daniel Kelly, ADL Director of Strategy and Ops and interim Head Center of Tech and Society.
“Part of the issue is we do point out problems, and they fix the specific examples, but they don’t fix the underlying problem that led to this,” he said.
What to do about online antisemitism
There are many ways influencers and regular users experience hate, antisemitism, and misinformation online.
“I think the more pernicious issue is the business model,” said Ellen P. Goodman, distinguished professor, Rutgers Law School.
“We would like to see how their algorithms work,” she said, talking about “downranking” (when content doesn’t get seen, as TikTok has been accused of in pro-Israel content) or “putting frictions in the system,” which refers to putting trigger warnings or other barriers to violent content. “What does it do to the traffic?” Goodman asks about violent or racist content.
She thinks users need to be careful.
“Be mindful of reengaging hate speech or calling attention to it,” she said. If you want to share something outrageous, don’t share it, capture it, and repost, and don’t list the website or people sharing it. “The more you engage with content, the more viral it goes!”
Goodman said you can leave the platforms, creating moral hazards and costs. “Make it in their interest to create more welcome platforms,” she said.
“Don’t waste your own time on these stupid platforms – your time is the most precious thing around,” said Carrie Goldberg, the founder of victims’ rights law firm C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, which fights for survivors of sexual violence and represents victims of catastrophic injuries caused by tech giants. Yet not everyone can get off-line. “One of the Achilles’ heels is they’re supersensitive to media and criticism, and it can actually work to criticize what you hate about them and judge them harshly.”
Kelly said people should report hate to the platforms and also to their regional ADL directors.
“The process of reporting hate is extremely imperfect,” Kelly said. “When we think about platforms, and we think about content moderation, if they have 100 million users and get 99% right, there’s still a million people impacted every day – and no platform is getting 99% right.”
Bernath said moderation has gotten better, but it’s not perfect.
“Harmful content to Jewish creators is not being taken down, but it’s gotten better,” he said.
But he’s not leaving. “I think, for me, though it was scary, I do believe being a loud voice in support of the Jewish people is worth the risks it comes with.”