While the anti-Israel encampments have largely been dismantled, their architects appear determined to capitalize on what they see as their most successful organizing tactic in a decade. “Summer school” is now in session, led locally and nationally by pro-Palestinian individuals and groups. These ”schools” — currently scheduled to run from June through August — are designed to educate and train student and community activists. Some are only open to…
Denial and Distortion of the Hamas-led October 7 Attack: An Overview of False Narratives
Article
Since October 7, extremists and conspiracy theorists have promoted mis- and disinformation narratives about the reality of Hamas’s unprecedented, multi-pronged attack on Israel, attempting to deny or minimize the tragedy and shift the blame towards victims, a majority of whom were innocent civilians. These misleading or false claims — many of which have proliferated on mainstream social media platforms — manipulate and distort the facts of the mass assault, invalidate the…
GAI Music Creation Tool Suno Has Been Weaponized to Promote Hate
Article
Extremists and online trolls are using Suno, an increasingly influential Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) music creation tool, to make songs promoting hate speech, racist stereotypes, calls for violence and extremist rhetoric. The tool, created by Suno AI, became popular in 2023 after the company announced a partnership with Microsoft. Today, many users employ the tool for innocuous purposes. However, the ADL Center on Extremism has discovered a vast library of disturbing songs…
How Antisemites, Extremists and Conspiracy Theorists are Exploiting the Anti-Vax Movement
Article
While the days of lockdowns and social distancing are behind us, anti-vaccine narratives remain prevalent on social media, and extremists continue to exploit these sentiments to recruit new members, raise money and mainstream their beliefs. Many extremists view anti-vaxxers as a massive pool of potential fresh recruits and followers primed for the “red pill.” While the mainstreaming of once-fringe anti-vaccine beliefs poses obvious risks to public health,…
“Fight Until Victory”: Speakers & Guests Declare Full Support for Terrorism at “People’s Conference for Palestine”
Article
As the “People’s Conference for Palestine” got underway in Detroit, MI on May 24, the packed audience cheered as Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) organizer and conference MC Mohammed Nabulsi opened by offering “salutations to our people in Palestine and to our noble, steadfast Resistance.” Nabulsi garnered further enthusiastic applause when he urged “eternal glory to our martyrs” and called to “liberate every inch of Palestine, from the Jordan…
Support for October 7 Attack, Glorification of Terror Mark 2024 Nakba Day Events
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Nakba Day commemorations across the United States, already charged events, were compounded this year by a sharp rise in anti-Israel activity tied to the Israel-Hamas war that was triggered by the October 7 mass terror attacks. Nakba Day (“catastrophe” in Arabic) is commemorated annually on May 15 by Palestinians and their supporters worldwide to mourn the events related to the creation of the State of Israel, including its impact on Palestinians, and to advocate for the…
“Propaganda for Fun:” How Extremists Use GAI to Camouflage Hate
Article
Disturbing memes and images created using Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) are polluting social media with camouflaged hate and extremist propaganda. Innovations in AI technology, plus a wider range of tools available than ever before, have enabled the use of AI image generators for nefarious purposes—some of which have been coordinated and crowdsourced online. In the last year, one GAI feature has emerged as a favorite among extremists: The ability to embed shapes, symbols and…
Northern New Jersey Jewish Communities Face Wave of Israel-Related Antisemitism
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“Go back to Auschwitz, bitch!” This disturbing antisemitic refrain rang out repeatedly at an anti-Israel protest held across the street from a synagogue in Fort Lee, NJ on November 5, 2023. More recently, in March and April 2024, anti-Israel protests outside of synagogues in nearby Teaneck have included protesters explicitly calling for the exclusion of “Zionists” from the community. These incidents are part of a wave of antisemitic and extreme anti-Zionist…
COE Analysis: Iran Attack Sparks Surge in Online Antisemitic Threats
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A new analysis by the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) has found that online expressions of antisemitism on Telegram, a prominent messaging platform frequented by purveyors of hate speech, increased dramatically in the days following the Iranian regime's unprecedented assault on Israel on April 13, 2024. The weekend attack consisted of some 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. The Iranian regime’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah and other Tehran-backed militias based in Iraq, Syria…
Campus Antisemitism Surges Amid Encampments and Related Protests at Columbia and Other U.S. Colleges
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Anti-Zionist student groups on more than 100 U.S. college and university campuses have established “encampments” in recent days to ostensibly protest Israel’s actions in Gaza and their academic institutions’ alleged “complicity” in those actions. College campuses have been the site of many tense anti-Israel protests and antisemitic incidents since the start of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attack. These…
From Dearborn to NYC, Quds Day Protesters Praise Terrorists, Denounce the U.S. and Call for the Destruction of Israel
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Over the weekend of April 5, 2024, anti-Israel activists in the US and around the world marked Al Quds Day (“Jerusalem Day”) with protests and other events against Zionism and the state of Israel. This annual event, originally conceived by the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, serves as a platform for support for terrorism and other violence against Israel and regularly includes virulent antisemitic and anti-Zionist…
COE Investigation Reveals Key Perpetrators of 10/7 Sexual Assault Denial on X
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CW: This piece contains reference to rape and sexual assault In the wake of the October 7 terror attack in Israel, horrific details began to emerge of Hamas assailants brutalizing Israeli women and girls, parading their broken bodies through the streets, and concertgoers being raped and murdered in front of their friends. By November, videos and eyewitness testimony were widely available to the public, showing and describing Hamas terrorists using rape as a weapon of war. …
Daniel Haqiqatjou is an antisemite and conspiracy theorist who also spreads anti-LGBTQ+ and misogynistic rhetoric. He is the founder, editor-in-chief and contributor at the Muslim Skeptic, an online magazine that frequently elevates antisemitic tropes and antisemitic conspiracy theories under the guise of legitimate criticism of Israel or Jewish law. Haqiqatjou has praised Hamas and its October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel across his social media profiles and shared age…
“Israel is ISIS” and other lies about the Crocus City Hall terror attack
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Conspiracy theories and antisemitic narratives have flooded social media in the wake of an Islamic State-claimed terror attack at a music venue outside Moscow. On March 22, 2024, four gunmen attacked concertgoers at Crocus City Hall, shooting into the crowd and using explosives to set the building on fire, killing at least 130 people and injuring at least 140 others. Hours after the attack, the Amaq News Agency, a propaganda arm of the Islamic State (IS or ISIS), claimed…
U.S. White Supremacist Propaganda Incidents Reach Historic Levels in 2023
Press Release
New York, NY, March 26, 2024 … White supremacist propaganda distribution reached historic levels across the United States in 2023, with a total of 7,567 incidents, a 12-percent increase from 2022, according to the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Center on Extremism’s annual assessment. With an average of about 20 incidents per day, 2023 marked the highest level of incidents since ADL began tracking such data in 2017. This was the second consecutive year that ADL has recorded record…
Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW): What You Need to Know
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Part of the ADL Center on Extremism’s coverage of the misogynist manosphere and its subcultures, each of which impacts women’s experiences of safety and equity – online and offline. Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) is a distinct faction of the “manosphere,” the broad set of male supremacist, anti-feminist, misogynist and sometimes violent extremist movements that exist largely online. The MGTOW movement began online in the early 2000s when…
TikTok Ban Feared, Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories Follow
Article
On March 13, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that could potentially lead to a nationwide ban of the popular social media platform TikTok. According to the bill, the issue stems from TikTok being owned by a “foreign adversary,” which poses a national security threat. TikTok’s China-owned parent company ByteDance would be required to find another buyer within six months to avoid the app being pulled from app stores in the US. While the bill has not yet…
Hizb Ut Tahrir U.S. Conference Features Antisemitism, Calls for Violent Destruction of Israel
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The U.S. wing of Hizb Ut Tahrir, an international Islamist organization that seeks to establish an Islamic theocracy, held their annual conference on March 2, 2024, in Villa Park, Illinois. The group, which is banned in the United Kingdom, Germany and several other countries, featured speakers who called for an army to invade and destroy Israel, justified the October 7 Hamas terror attack, suggested men should travel to Gaza to fight Israel, implored followers to “resist…