New York, NY, October 9, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today issued a new study showing a dramatic spike in anti-Asian sentiment and conspiracy theories about the spread of coronavirus in conversations on Twitter in the days immediately following the president’s first tweet about his positive diagnosis on October 2.
The new study of Twitter conversations and activity, conducted by ADL’s Center for Technology and Society, found that in the 12 hours after the…
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October 08, 2020 At the Extremes: The 2020 Election and American Extremism
In the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election, the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Center on Extremism in conjunction with ADL’s Center for Technology and Society are releasing a series of news briefs on topics of concern regarding the role extremism plays in our current political environment.
Here's Part 3:
Conspiracy Theories and Anti-Asian Hostility on Twitter
Who/What: After President…
October 07, 2020 “Like it or not it’s about to become a ‘significant time in American history’: Patriots vs. traitors…Start preparing now: food, ammo, fuel…ballots and/or bullets. God knows my heart, and my aim is true.”
Such a message would not be a surprising discovery on extremist platforms like Telegram or Gab, but we are increasingly seeing this violent and apocalyptic rhetoric on Facebook “Patriot” pages, populated largely by…
New York, October 6, 2020 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) CEO and National Director Jonathan A. Greenblatt issued the following statement regarding Facebook’s decision to ban QAnon content from its platform:
Facebook’s decision to ban QAnon from all its platforms is a much needed, if belated, step to purge dangerous conspiracy theories from the platform. QAnon is an extremist movement that fuels antisemitism and promotes misinformation and hate in an…
One-month snapshot reveals Rep. Nadler and Sen. Schumer disproportionally targeted by antisemitic tweets New York, October 6, 2020 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today released a new study finding a high volume of antisemitic tropes and misinformation on Twitter directed at incumbent Jewish members of Congress who are running for re-election.
For the study, ADL’s Center for Technology and Society collected and analyzed all tweets across a single month that were…
Dozens of influencers expected to join 24-Hour Instagram “Freeze” on Wednesday New York, NY, September 15, 2020 ... Nearly two dozen A-list Hollywood celebrities have signed on to the call by Stop Hate for Profit, a coalition of civil rights organizations and advocacy groups, that was issued yesterday, asking a one-day moratorium from posting on Instagram in protest of Facebook’s repeated failures to address hate speech and election disinformation on their platforms.
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Week of Action Includes a 24-Hour Instagram “Freeze” and Culminates with Call to Protect Our Democracy New York, NY, September 14, 2020 ... Members of the Stop Hate for Profit coalition and its network of thousands of supporters across the country will be joining in a coordinated week of action on Instagram this week, demanding parent company Facebook take action to address racism, hate, and disinformation on its platforms.
The actions include a one-day freeze on Instagram…
August 31, 2020 Under the guise of anti-censorship and free speech, video-hosting service BitChute has become a hotbed for violent, conspiratorial and hate-filled video propaganda, and a recruiting ground for extremists.
BitChute founder Ray Vahey’s concept for the platform came from, in his words, “seeing the increased levels of censorship by the large social media platforms in the last couple of years. Bannings, demonetization, and tweaking algorithms to send…
New York, NY, August 28, 2020 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) issued the following statement on the 57th Anniversary of the March on Washington, and in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin:
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered what would become one of the most influential speeches in history, proclaiming to the world, ‘I have a dream.’
The March on…
August 20, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
An FBI Twitter account tweeted out a link to a PDF containing the antisemitic “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” as well as FBI documents related to it, with no other context. President Trump on Wednesday offered encouragement to proponents of QAnon, a viral and dangerous conspiracy theory. According to a new study, Facebook “actively promotes further Holocaust-denial content to that user” and “has been unwilling…
August 19, 2020 On August 19, one of the FBI’s official twitter handles, the FBI Records Vault, disseminated a link labeled “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” There has been widespread confusion about the FBI’s motives for doing this, and concern that in doing so the FBI is spreading an antisemitic text. The Protocols is a notorious antisemitic forgery created at the turn of the 20th century by the Czarist secret police and describes an alleged secret plan of…
August 14, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
Israel struck an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to establish “full normalization of relations” even as it forgoes for now plans to annex occupied West Bank territory in order to focus on improving its ties with the rest of the Arab world. Facebook will start banning posts that contain blackface or that promote antisemitic conspiracy theories that Jewish people are running the world. A Georgia congressional candidate, who has a…
August 13, 2020 Extremists are constantly adapting and finding creative ways to reach new audiences – and new ways to evade content moderators. Their latest efforts are evident on TikTok, the Chinese social media app that allows users to create and share short videos. In less than four years, TikTok has racked up more than 800 million users, and its popularity is fast approaching that of social media giants like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram Each TikTok video has the…
August 07, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
Twenty state attorneys general called on Facebook to better prevent messages of hate, bias and disinformation from spreading, and said the company needed to provide more help to users facing online abuse. The leader of a white supremacist group was arrested in Weatherford, Texas on Saturday after police said he and two other men placed stickers on county property. And the global Jewish community continues to face rising antisemitism due to the…
August 03, 2020 Facebook Groups play a key role on the Facebook platform. Groups are essentially discussion forums organized around an endless number of possible subjects, allowing individuals to pursue their interests and communicate around shared interests. Groups can be public (posts are visible to all Facebook users) or private (individuals must be approved by the group administrator to join and see the posts).
Despite public announcements of efforts to curb hateful speech and…
July 24, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
The civil rights groups behind the month-long advertising ad pause of Facebook turned up public pressure with the release of an animated “Dear Mark” video. Almost three years after a conspiracy theory known as QAnon began spreading on dark corners of the internet, Twitter announced that it had removed thousands of accounts linked to the movement. And celebrating the life and legacy of civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis.
Read…
July 13, 2020 What do extremists do when a major social media site starts to deplatform them? While some migrate to less restrictive platforms, others adopt camouflage techniques so they can continue to operate on their platform of choice, hiding in plain sight through name changes and coded phrases.
The new anti-government extremist "boogaloo" movement took the latter approach when, on June 30, Facebook announced it had banned hundreds of groups and pages associated with…
July 10, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
Civil rights leaders came out of a meeting Tuesday with Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg saying they didn’t make progress on #StopHateforProfit’s demands over how the social media giant polices the platform for hate and misinformation. Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson apologized for a series of antisemitic Instagram posts, one of which included a quote about Jews falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler. A county chairman in…
June 26, 2020 On June 17th, we asked companies to act against hate and disinformation being spread by Facebook in our campaign Stop Hate for Profit. We asked advertisers to temporarily pause advertising on Facebook and Instagram in order to force Mark Zuckerberg to address the catastrophic effect that Facebook has had on our society.
Companies have responded in waves. Unilever, Verizon, Patagonia, Ben and Jerry’s, North Face, Eileen Fisher, Viber and the list goes on and…
June 25, 2020 Last week a group of organizations launched Stop Hate for Profit with one simple goal: convince social media companies to finally put people over profit. We launched asking advertisers to join the campaign and pause their spending on Facebook and Instagram ads for the month of July 2020. You might be asking: Why Facebook? Haven’t they done better lately? What are the biggest problems you’re tracking? Why Facebook? Our partner organizations have been working with…