November 20, 2020 The latest Facebook Transparency Report, which covers July 2020 to September 2020 (Q3 2020), raises some alarming concerns around the prevalence of hate speech on the platform, leaving ADL with several questions that demand clear answers. ADL published a blog post about the opaque nature of Facebook’s transparency reports in January 2019. Many of the same problems that existed in the 2019 reports continue in Facebook’s most recent transparency efforts.
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Survey reveals increased harassment on gaming platforms from 2019 New York, November 18, 2020 … Sixty-eight percent of players have experienced severe harassment while playing games online, which includes physical threats, stalking and sustained harassment, while 81 percent of online multiplayer gamers have experienced some form of harassment, according to a survey released today by ADL’s (the Anti-Defamation League) Center for Technology and Society. This represents a…
November 17, 2020 Facebook has been vocal about its recent efforts to suspend and ban hateful, conspiratorial and violent content from its platform. And yet a great deal of extremist content remains.
As of November 16, 2020, even a cursory search of Facebook brings up white supremacist, racist and antisemitic pages. The following is a sampling of extremist groups and individuals currently active on Facebook.
Antisemites and Holocaust Deniers:
TruNews is a fundamentalist…
Remarks by Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO November 09, 2020 Thank you all for tuning in today for the 5th annual Never is Now conference. There is so much to discuss, but before we get started, I want to pause and remember Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks who left us too soon this weekend. He was an extraordinary leader, a remarkable rabbi, a gifted scholar and a beautiful man. He will be missed. May his memory always be for a blessing. We gather today -- virtually -- at what feels like the start…
New York, NY, November 7, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today congratulated President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their election victory. ADL called on both Democrats and Republicans to ensure a peaceful transfer of power once the election results have been validated.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO, issued the following statement:
We congratulate President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on his milestone election victory. We also…
November 05, 2020 A subset of high-profile, misinformation-laden posts reached a combined potential audience of more than 108M followers, with over 1.1M likes and retweets prior to ADL reporting them to Twitter on November 4, 2020. From the time ADL reported the tweets to Twitter on November 4 until our final check on November 9, we found that the misleading tweets that remained unaddressed by the social media platform had been liked or retweeted more than 297,000 additional times. Tweets…
As the final votes are tallied, we reiterate our longstanding calls that every vote counts and every vote must be counted. New York, NY, November 4, 2020 ... Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), today issued the following statement on the undetermined outcome of the United States presidential election:
We have just witnessed one of the most consequential presidential election contests in the history of our nation. The turnout exceeded expectations across the…
During election season, a lot of information gets circulated about what’s happening and what your options are. It can be hard to figure out what’s true, what isn’t, and what you can do. We’re here to help. This post is for you whether you’re eligible to vote or not – civic engagement is for everyone, because government affects us all. This is in Question & Answer form, so you can go straight to the issues that are most relevant to you. Who is eligible to…
New York, NY, October 21, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) and the National Urban League today announced the expansion of a partnership between the two venerable civil rights organizations in service of fighting racism, antisemitism, and advocating around issues of mutual concern.
The partnership, initially announced in August, is intended to create deep relationships on the ground through the next generation of leaders, uniting each organization’s existing young…
Analysis also found sharp rise in anti-Black content as Black Lives Matter protests erupted in May 2020 New York, NY, October 21, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today released a new study evaluating anti-Black and antisemitic content in public groups on Facebook and private channels on Telegram since the start of the year, finding a much larger proportion of references to hateful content on Telegram. Reviewing content since the start of 2020 through September, there was a…
New York, NY, October 20, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt issued the following statement regarding the introduction of the Protecting Americans from Dangerous Algorithms Act by Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA):
ADL has long fought against social media’s extraordinary amplification of violence and extremism, which is a profoundly harmful consequence of platforms optimizing for user engagement and revenue. Yet federal law has…
New York, NY, October 19, 2020 ... In response to growing concerns that extremists could attempt to interfere at the polls in the next few weeks as Americans cast their ballots, ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) has established a new online incident reporting tool that will enable voters to flag any potential hate crimes or disruptions involving extremists.
In addition to an online reporting form, where the public will be able to report possible hate crimes or extremism-related incidents…
October 16, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
After years of urging from ADL and other civil rights organizations, Facebook will ban posts that deny the Holocaust. A video has gone viral on social media of a man shouting at a Hasidic Jewish man for not wearing a mask on an empty New York City street. YouTube on Thursday became the latest social media giant to take steps to stop QAnon, the sprawling right-wing conspiracy theory community whose online fantasies about a cabal of satanic pedophiles…
October 15, 2020 Nearly half of American adults experience online harassment and nearly one third experience severe harassment, but society still struggles with understanding the deep impact of online hate. Too often, we see “online hate” contrasted with “real world violence.” Trust us: to victims and targets of swatting, doxing, cyberstalking, and cyberharassment, the abuse they experience online is very real.
We know that digital abuse pushes targets offline…
New York, NY, October 12, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) is relieved by Facebook’s announcement that it was updating its hate speech policy to prohibit any content “that denies or distorts the Holocaust.” This comes after nearly a decade of ADL advocating for such changes and just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, where users have been using the platform to perpetuate hate and conspiracy theories at alarming rates.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO,…
October 11, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
Jewish members of Congress are facing antisemitic attacks on Twitter in the lead-up to the November election, according to a new report from ADL. Facebook said it is escalating the campaign against QAnon, pledging to remove any Facebook pages, groups and Instagram accounts aligned with the conspiracy group. The FBI says it thwarted what it described as a plot to violently overthrow the government and kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Read on…
New York, NY, October 8, 2020 …ADL (Anti-Defamation League) today welcomed YouTube’s banning some extremist content, including white supremacists and the official channel of the stridently antisemitic Nation of Islam (NOI), led by Louis Farrakhan.
“For decades, Louis Farrakhan and many of his followers have been preaching vitriol and antisemitism, and in recent years they’ve found a wider audience on platforms like YouTube,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL…
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…
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…