Reports Of Antisemitism On Social Media Almost Double

Reports of antisemitic posts online almost doubled in 2022, says a new report.

Israel-based Fighting Online Antisemitism (FOA) says there were 5,961 offensive posts, including Holocaust denial and anti-Israel hate, across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and the other social media platforms manually monitored by volunteers.

That’s an increase of 78 percent on the 3,354 figure for 2021. Sixty percent of all the antisemitic posts it found were on Twitter.   

FAO monitors and reports antisemitic content in multiple languages and tries to have it removed. It also covers the Russian social media platform VK, as well as Telegram, Gab, Spotify, and LinkedIn. 

The report says that across all platforms, the number of offensive posts removed was down from 25 percent in 2021 to 20 percent in 2022. 

The platforms that shared the most antisemitic and violent content – Gab, Telegram, and VK – were also the most difficult to remove.

Despite this, platforms like Facebook and YouTube actually improved their efforts to remove the hateful posts and comments over the last year, with 35 percent in 2022 compared to 23 percent in 2021, and 29 percent in 2022 compared to 25 percent in 2021, respectively. 

TikTok, which has over a billion users, remained vigilant in the past year about removing antisemitic content, especially Holocaust denial content, and remained at an average of 33 percent. 

Most of the monitored antisemitic content (64 percent) across all platforms was considered to be ‘classic antisemitism’ (a perception of Jews that may be expressed as hatred) and Holocaust-related content.

About 35 percent of the content was anti-Israel hate – but as all social media platforms do not consider this to be hate speech content, only five percent of it was removed, compared to 35 percent of the other categories. 

“It is imperative to educate people about the dangers of online antisemitism, and this is one of FOA’s main goals,” said Darya Salomon, volunteer director.

“In the last year we have trained more than 200 international volunteers through public awareness campaigns and educational programs. focusing on younger generations. By raising awareness of the dangers of online antisemitism, we can create a more tolerant and inclusive society for all”.

Tomer Aldubi, Executive Director: “Fighting Online Antisemitism Organization activities demonstrate that the various Internet platforms that declare zero tolerance for online hate crimes do not do enough to prevent them.

“Social media providers must adopt and declare a clear and uncompromising policy to remove antisemitism and holocaust denial and actively take steps to prevent the spread of conspiracy theories against the Jews.”

Since its establishment in 2020, Fighting Online Antisemitism has trained over 300 international volunteers. Their work has resulted in the deletion of significant amounts of toxic and false materials.

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