Social Media Election Policies: The Good, the Bad and the Misinformed
Article
False and misleading social media harms elections, undermines public trust, normalizes baseless challenges to elections, stokes harassment and incites violence.
Iran is Still in the Holocaust Denial Biz – Big Time
News
This article originally appeared in The Times of Israel
By Meir Javedanfar
On January 20, 2022, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution that condemned the denial and distortion of the Holocaust. To no one’s surprise, the Islamic Republic of Iran chose to be the only country in the world that condemned and rejected this resolution.
The UN passed the resolution one month after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi cast doubt on the Holocaust during an…
Palestinian Violence Glorified, Israel Demonized as Wave of Terror Persists
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The wave of Palestinian terrorism in October, including the murder of a soldier in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank and a shooting attack in East Jerusalem, which claimed the life of Israeli soldier Noa Lazar, has once again brought to the fore the demonization of Israel and the glorification of violence.
Notably, the current wave of violence saw the emergence of a Palestinian terrorist organization called The Lion’s Den, a relatively small group based in the West Bank city of…
ADL’s analysis found Meta has accepted large sums of money for ads on hateful topics such as antisemitism and transphobia. In some cases, Meta even accepted money for ads that violated its hate speech policy.
New Poll: French Have Mostly Positive Views of Jews, Troubling Sentiment Towards Muslims
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A recent poll of French attitudes, on a variety of subjects of interest to ADL, revealed some surprising and unsurprising results. On the social acceptance of Jews in France, there was relatively good news, but the same unfortunately cannot be said about French attitudes towards Muslims.
The Le Monde – Fondation Jean Jaures survey analyzes attitudes about societal issues and political affiliation. Over 12,000 people were polled from September 16-20 and the results were…
Social media is a hotbed of antisemitism, anti-Israel hate, Holocaust denial and distortion and other conspiracy theories. Check out our tips on how to engage and disengage in the fight against antisemitism, anti-Israel bias, and hate on social media.
Major Platforms’ Midterm Election Policies: Are They Enough?
Article
Summary
The United States midterm electoral campaigns are in full force as candidates prepare advertisements and voter outreach. Social media is an integral part of their campaigning as more than half of all Americans get news from a social media platform.
But false or misleading information (including misinformation, spread without malice or coordination, and disinformation, purposely created to manipulate or cause harm) runs rampant on platforms, subverting democracy and leading…
Remarks by Jonathan Greenblatt to the Inter-Parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism
News
Good evening and thank you for being a part of this important gathering of the Inter-Parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism.
I’m delighted to see so many friends in this room tonight. I want to particularly thank Task Force co-chairs U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Canadian Member of Parliament Anthony Housefather for organizing this critically important summit that challenges us to ask hard questions about the evolution and proliferation of online antisemitism…
Scapegoating of Jews for the 1969 Al-Aqsa Arson Continued as Usual in 2022
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August 21 marked the 53rd anniversary of the 1969 al-Aqsa Mosque arson and the ongoing disinformation campaigns scapegoating Jews and Israel for the attack. Although Israeli authorities promptly arrested, tried, and convicted the culprit, Denis Michael Rohan – a Protestant extremist from Australia who believed his actions would prompt the Second Coming of Jesus – Middle Eastern outlets have been publishing inaccurate reports of the event to this day. In a blog published last month,…
How A Texas Teen Turned Bias and Body-Shaming into Advocacy and Action
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Olivia Julianna (who uses only her first and middle name publicly to protect her privacy) has been an activist for several years, advocating voting rights and reproductive-health care. Like many in her generation, she found the political side of TikTok where young people post about important issues facing them. Olivia is involved with Gen-Z for Change, a nonprofit organization leveraging social media to promote civil discourse and political action on a variety of topics including…
Middle Eastern Media Needs to Stop Blaming Jews for the 1969 Al-Aqsa Arson
Article
August 21 marks the 53rd anniversary of a terrible attack against an Islamic holy site, when a Protestant extremist from Australia named Denis Michael Rohan set fire to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, destroying large parts of the site and irreplaceable artifacts.
Rohan’s crime should rightly be widely condemned and the loss commemorated even five-plus decades later. It is important to note that Rohan, who believed his actions would prompt the Second Coming of Jesus, was…
Swatting is the deliberate and malicious act of reporting a false crime or emergency to evoke an aggressive response (often a SWAT team) from a law enforcement agency to a target's residence or place of work to harass and intimidate them.
Alarmingly, swatting appears to be on the rise. Kevin Kolbye, a former FBI agent with expertise in swatting, estimates incidents have jumped from 400 cases in 2011 to over 1,000 in 2019. Unfortunately, the actual number is unknown because the FBI does not…
Anti-Israel Activists Co-opt American Tragedies to Target Israel
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This spring and summer, as headlines across the United States have focused on urgent issues like the dangers of gun violence and threats to reproductive care, prominent anti-Israel groups and individuals have sought to tether these American issues to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, doubling down on anti-Zionist tropes and false accusations against the state of Israel.
These groups include Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), both of which…
President Biden’s Visit to Israel Sees Uptick in Anti-Zionist Rhetoric
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U.S. President Joe Biden, who is currently visiting Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Saudi Arabia, reiterated the strong friendship and strategic alliance between Israel and the United States, paid tribute to Holocaust survivors, and even self-identified as a Zionist, at a time when the term is being demonized by Israel’s detractors.
Outraged by this show of support for the Jewish State, individuals and groups in the anti-Israel movement in the United States assailed President…
Twitter’s Failure to Enforce Its Policy Against Antisemitism
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An investigation from ADL’s Center for Technology and Society (CTS) found Twitter did not remove over 200 blatantly antisemitic tweets accusing Jewish people of pedophilia, invoking Holocaust denial, and sharing oft-repeated conspiracy theories. To test Twitter’s enforcement of its policies on antisemitism, CTS reported 225 strongly antisemitic tweets over nine weeks through ongoing communications with the platform. Of the reported tweets, Twitter only removed 11, or 5% of the…