Study finds marginalized groups targeted most; users also exposed to extremist ideologies New York, July 25, 2019 … Sixty-five percent of players have experienced severe harassment while playing games online, which includes physical threats, stalking and sustained harassment, while 74 percent of online multiplayer gamers have experienced some form of harassment, according to a first-of-its-kind survey released today by ADL’s (the Anti-Defamation League) Center on…
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The following letter was submitted to The Wall Street Journal in response to "Hate Crime Hoaxes Are More Common Than You Think" (June 26, 2019). This appeared in the Journal's print editions on July 11, 2019. To the Editor:
Jason Riley’s suggestion that false hate crimes are being amplified by civil-rights organizations and others who “have a vested interest in exaggerating racial tensions” is deeply offensive and flat-out wrong (“Hate Crime Hoaxes…
New York, NY, July 9, 2019 … ADL (Anti-Defamation League) issued the following statement regarding Instagram's announced design change to reduce harassment on their platform and improve the experience of targets of online hate and harassment:
"We welcome Instagram's new changes to address harassment on their platform. Putting the power to combat hate in the hands of users will make a tangible difference in the lives of both the targets and the perpetrators of online…
July 02, 2019 While Facebook is working with leading civil society organizations, including ADL, to address civil rights concerns on their platform, their latest report raises more questions than it answers about how Facebook intends to do this.
Many of the audit committee’s recommendations are not novel but, if implemented, would be valuable steps forward in addressing hate, harassment and radicalization on Facebook — such as blocking for targets of large-scale…
July 02, 2019 Even as mainstream social media companies are struggling to eliminate extremist content and users from their platforms, the opportunities of scale and reach provided by these platforms continue to be leveraged and weaponized by extremists. And as mainstream companies increase their content moderation efforts to clamp down on hate, extremists are migrating to other platforms.
White supremacists are relatively easy to find on mainstream sites like Facebook and Twitter, despite…
We're co-opting the online platforms that embolden extremists who fan the flames of bigotry and violent fantasies to stop them before they act. by: Jonathan Greenblatt | July 01, 2019 The Times of Israel From hateful speech on Stormfront and Gab to the harassment of rabbis walking down the street in Germany to recent deadly violence at houses of worship in Pittsburgh, Christchurch, and Poway, it is painfully clear how online radicalization truly endangers communities. There’s a bright…
June 28, 2019 Edition: June 27, 2019
THE WEEK’S BIG 3
White supremacists increased college campus recruiting efforts with more propaganda distributions for the third straight year. ADL and partners are teaming up in an initiative to help redirect those seeking extremist content on the internet to material that exposes the falsehoods of these hateful movements. In a victory for immigration advocates, the Supreme Court ruled the Trump Administration cannot, for now, include the…
New York, NY, June 27, 2019 … ADL (Anti-Defamation League) today welcomed the introduction of bipartisan legislation designed to improve hate crime data collection. The measure would authorize grants to promote hate crime training, prevention, best practices, and data collection initiatives – and to develop state hate crime reporting hotlines to refer individuals to local law enforcement and support services.
“Especially in a time of rising hate crimes, we must…
June 27, 2019 By Grant R. Vousden-Dishington | Research Software Engineer, ADL's Center for Technology and Society
From the moment the attacker began live-streaming his lethal assault on the Al-Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Center in Christchurch, New Zealand, the significance of social media in driving the conversation about the incident was inevitable. Despite local law enforcement alerting Facebook to the live broadcast of the attack on their platform, and rapid action taken by…
June 21, 2019
Recent incidents of white supremacist terrorist activity have prompted the public, researchers, and cyber hate and harassment experts to focus on smaller online message boards and forums like Gab and 8chan. These platforms rose to prominence by permitting any content to be posted, no matter how extreme, without consequence. In fact, they boast about being unhindered by content moderation niceties. A particularly worrying trend is the increasing reach and influence of these…
New York, NY, June 13, 2019… ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today welcomed the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upholding the constitutionality of the landmark federal hate crime legislation, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act (HCPA), as applied in the case of an Amazon worker who was targeted because of his perceived sexual orientation.
"Today represents an important victory in the ongoing fight against bias and hate…
June 07, 2019 June 6, 2019
THE WEEK'S BIG 3
YouTube announces a new effort to remove extremist, white supremacist content from its platform, in what ADL called “an important step forward.” In an attempt to claim ‘prominent’ conservatives were being censored on social media platforms, a Fox News host cited an avowed anti-Semite as an example. Volkswagen is partnering with ADL to fund a new office in Berlin that will research and combat anti-Semitism throughout…
New York, NY, June 5, 2019 … ADL (Anti-Defamation League) issued the following statement regarding YouTube’s policy changes, announced today, to reduce extremist content, including white supremacy, conspiracy theories and Holocaust denialism:
"Online hate and extremism pose a significant threat -- weaponizing bigotry against marginalized communities, silencing voices through intimidation and acting as recruiting tools for hateful, fringe groups,” said Jonathan Greenblatt…
May 31, 2019 May 30, 2018
THE WEEK'S BIG 3
Jews in Germany were warned that wearing a kippah in public may be dangerous, due to a disturbing increase in anti-Semitic incidents. The Ku Klux Klan attempted to hold a rally in Dayton, Ohio over the weekend but failed spectacularly – being out numbered 600 to nine. Twitter is weighing whether banning white nationalists from their platform or allowing them to stay on and be debated is the proper approach in dealing with this issue.
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Four New Fellows Will Focus on Research Bridging the Intersection of Tech and Civil Rights New York, May 16, 2019 … ADL’s (the Anti-Defamation League) Center for Technology and Society today announced it has selected four leading academics for its second class of Belfer Fellows. The Belfer Fellowship program advances ADL’s work by promoting cyberhate awareness and digital citizenship, as well as implementing these projects for the wider social good.
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New York, NY, May 15, 2019 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt issued the following statement concerning the Trump Administration's decision not to sign onto the "Christchurch Call," which seeks to combat online hate and extremism:
White supremacy is a global terror threat. We are encouraged by the fact that global leaders are waking up to these deadly trends but unfortunately, the U.S. government is falling behind. It is incredibly…
May 13, 2019 By Ahmad Sultan | Associated Director for Research, Advocacy and Technology Policy, ADL's Center for Technology and Society
Livestreaming, the act of broadcasting an event from your device to a social media platform in real-time, has been used for activism across the world, giving a platform to marginalized people, and capturing social inequities and government injustices like the murder of Philando Castle. It has played a role in bringing communities together through the…
New York, NY, May 10, 2019 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today applauded the successful federal hate crime prosecution of a Virginia man who had repeatedly issued death threats to leaders and staff of the Arab American Institute over a five-year period.
Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director, issued the following statement:
Hate crimes like this may target specific individuals, but their effect can be far greater – the perpetrator attempts to…
New York, NY, May 2, 2019 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt issued the following statement regarding Facebook's decision today remove anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and other bigots from its platform:
It’s important that social platforms make policy decisions that combat hate and so this is a long overdue step by Facebook but a move that we welcome. Still, it’s not enough for tech companies…
Remarks by Eileen Hershenov, Senior Vice President for Policy, ADL April 09, 2019 Washington, D.C., April 9, 2019
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Collins and Members of the Committee, good morning. I am Eileen Hershenov, Senior Vice President for Policy at ADL.
Please let me first say thank for your leadership in recognizing the importance of addressing the increase in hate crimes and the resurgence of white supremacy. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss topics my…