How much hate exists online, and how large is its reach? Is it possible to independently evaluate the claims tech companies make about the amount of hate on their platforms and how effectively they are addressing it? To answer these questions, ADL Center for Technology and Society (CTS) is building the Online Hate Index (OHI), a machine learning system that detects hate targeting marginalized groups on online platforms. This report presents the inaugural findings of the OHI’s…

One of the many damning revelations from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen during her Congressional testimony on October 5 was that the platform devotes 87% of its research and resources on fighting misinformation to English-language content when only 9% of its users are English speakers. The lack of content moderation over hateful content in languages other than English has helped fuel global conflicts such as the civil war in Ethiopia. And it appears Facebook’s efforts in…

DOWNLOAD THE PDF REPORTAntisemitism has been a problem on college and university campuses for decades. But while the climate for Jewish students had been improving for many years, we are seeing an alarming new uptick in the number of reported antisemitic incidents across the country. Swastikas, Nazi symbols and other antisemitic graffiti have been reported on numerous campuses, and antisemitic tropes hurled at Jewish students have made headlines. Most notably, white supremacists…

By: Kiki Sorensen, Flickr, CC: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ We know that social media platforms play a large role in spreading hate speech, racism, and misinformation. In Facebook’s case, blockbuster disclosures by whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former product manager on the company’s now-disbanded civic integrity team, revealed that the company buried internal research showing it was aware of the ways the platform creates societal harm. Transparency reports…

Ninety-seven million Americans play online multiplayer games. While virtually all players surveyed in ADL’s third annual report on experiences1 in online games appreciated the social connectivity of gaming, an alarmingly large majority continue to encounter a firehose of hate and harassment. ADL’s survey explores the social interactions, experiences, attitudes, and behaviors of online multiplayer gamers nationwide. This year’s survey again asked about the experiences of a…

In recent years, American Jews have faced increased threats of violence and harassment both online and offline. According to ADL’s annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, 2019 and 2020 were, respectively, the highest and third-highest years on record for cases of harassment, vandalism, and assault against Jews in the United States since tracking began in 1979. The recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, after which there was an increase in antisemitic incidents reported domestically,…

Antisemitic incidents remained at a historically high levelacross the U.S. in 2020, with a total of 2,024 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism reported to ADL.

Both politicians and video game streamers are not strangers to being targeted by online hate and harassment. Concerned about the risk that an outpouring of public hate could result when these two groups appear together online, ADL’s Center for Technology and Society (CTS) reviewed four high-profile livestreaming events occurring between October 2020 and February 2021 on the social media platform Twitch. The goal was to determine why or why not these events had devolved into hotbeds of…

How safe are social media platforms now? Throughout 2020 and early 2021, major technology companies announced that they were taking unprecedented action against the hate speech, harassment, misinformation and conspiracy theories that had long flourished on their platforms. According to the latest results from ADL’s annual survey of hate and harassment on social media, despite the seeming blitz of self-regulation from technology companies, the level of online hate and harassment…

Propaganda from groups such as Patriot Front, New Jersey European Heritage Association, Folks Front, and the Nationalist Social Club ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) tracked a near-doubling of white supremacist propaganda efforts in 2020, which included the distribution of racist, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ fliers, stickers, banners and posters. The 2020 data shows a huge increase of incidents from the previous year, with a total of 5,125 cases reported (averaging more than 14…

ADL Center for Technology and Society has published an updated Holocaust denial report card as of April 2023. Click HERE to view the new data. The Holocaust, the systematic murder of approximately six million Jews and several million others by the Nazis, is one of history's most painstakingly examined and well-documented genocides. Nevertheless, in the decades since World War II, a small group of antisemites has repeatedly attempted to cast doubt on the facts of the Holocaust…

They were ordinary people who lived extraordinary lives – or extraordinary people who put their lives on the line to protect the health and welfare of everyone. In what has become an annual tradition, as the year comes to a close ADL pauses each December to take stock of the moments and people who shaped the last 12 months – for better, or for worse – with a Top 10 list. For 2020, we compiled two Top 10 lists: One looking back on the moments of hurt and hate that…

Introduction To synthesize our understanding of behavioural issues in gaming today, the Disruption and Harm in Gaming Framework arose through an unprecedented and global collaboration among the gaming industry, with support from leading researchers and civil society organizations. The result is a comprehensive framework detailing what we know about such conduct, including root causes and is the first in a series of resources that operationalise this knowledge. While it is clear that…

Video games have been popular in the United States for at least three decades, but the lockdowns and quarantines brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic kicked their growth as vital social spaces into overdrive.1 [i] Over 200 million people, 64 percent of American adults, regularly play video games- which include both online and offline games.[ii] A $159 billion industry, annual revenue from video games increased 9.3 percent this year, whereas revenue reported by traditional media such as movies…

By Mark Kumleben and Samuel Woolley  Propaganda Research Team Center for Media Engagement University of Texas at Austin Maggie Engler Global Disinformation Index Much of online speech today occurs on social media platforms like Facebook where a few companies have attained an outsized influence on what is permitted discussion on the internet. The rules and enforcement of the rules around speech on social platforms have far-reaching societal implications -- they can determine…

In late 2018, Pew Research Center reported that social media sites had surpassed print newspapers as a news source for Americans, when one in five U.S. adults reported that they often got the news via social media.i By the following year, that figure had increased to 28% and the trend is only risingii. Combine that with a deeply divided polity headed into a bitterly divisive 2020 U.S. presidential election season and it becomes crucial to understand the information that Americans are exposed…