Measuring the Hate: The State of Antisemitism in Social Media

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A major new report prepared for the Global Forum to Combat Antisemitism, “Measuring the Hate: The State of Antisemitism in Social Media”, highlights that not enough is being done to combat antisemitism in social media. The report, based on tracking over 2,000 items of antisemitism over the last 10 months, found that only 20% of the items were removed.

breakdown
Breakdown of antisemitism by category

Traditional antisemitism made up almost half the sample and covered content such as conspiracy theories, racial slurs, and accusations such as the blood libel. The report also outlines where each type of antisemitism occurs, with content promoting violence against Jews far more likely to be found on Twitter (63% on Twitter, 23% on YouTube and 14% on Facebook), while content promoting Holocaust denial was more likely to be found on YouTube (44% YouTube, 38% Twitter, 18% Facebook).

The report highlights significant variations in the responses of the social media companies to online antisemitism. More significantly, the response by each company was found to vary depending on the nature of the antisemitism.

Percent of items remaining by platform over time
Overall percent of items remaining online by platform over time

The best response rates came from Facebook where content promoting violence against Jews has a 75% chance of eventually being removed. The worst case was YouTube videos containing New Antisemitism, that is antisemitism related to the State of Israel, where only 4% has been removed after more than 10 months.

table
Table of take down rates by category of antisemitism and platform

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