Platform’s CEO encouraged rioters to broadcast their actions New York, NY, January 13, 2021 … The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) today called on the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI to launch a criminal investigation into Gab and its CEO, Andrew Torba, to determine whether the social media platform intentionally aided or abetted individuals who carried out the January 6 attack on the nation’s Capitol. Gab continues to serve as a forum where white supremacists and…
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New York, December 30, 2020 … In response to various threats to the local Jewish community in recent years, including a series of violent attacks affecting Jewish communities of Jersey City, Monsey and Brooklyn last year, ADL’s Center on Extremism and the Community Security Initiative (CSI) today announced a partnership to focus on the security needs of the Jewish communities of greater New York City.
The Center on Extremism is the ADL’s research and investigative arm…
December 17, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
The website of a Jewish high school in suburban New York was hacked and defaced with swastikas and antisemitic slurs. A member of a Chabad in Lexington was severely injured when a driver shouting antisemitic slurs dragged and ran over him outside the Jewish Student Center near the University of Kentucky. And the Senate passed a bipartisan bill by unanimous consent upgrading the status of the State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat…
Organizations release new framework on harms in gaming, best practices for addressing Seattle, WA, December 16, 2020 ... The Fair Play Alliance have teamed up with the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Center for Technology and Society to release the Disruption and Harms in Online Gaming Framework, an unprecedented and comprehensive catalogue of the types, causes, and impacts of antisocial behavior and harassment in gaming. The launch is accompanied by the release of a new set of freely…
December 11, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
The only Anne Frank memorial in the United States was vandalized Tuesday, a distressing display of hate that has prompted a police investigation. A report into last year's Christchurch mosque attack found that New Zealand security agencies were "almost exclusively" focused on the threat from Islamist terrorism, and police failed to enforce proper checks on firearm licenses. Facebook is embarking on a major overhaul of its algorithms that detect hate…
New York, NY, December 9, 2020 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt issued the following statement in response to today’s announcement that 48 states and the Federal Trade Commission filed antitrust lawsuits against Facebook:
Earlier this year, Stop Hate for Profit brought together over 1,200 businesses, 120 nonprofits, and global celebrities in a campaign that reached over a billion people. This massive public pressure effort forced Facebook to move…
New York, NY, December 9, 2020 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today commented on the social media platform Twitch’s announcement of their updated Hateful Conduct and Harassment Policy. ADL’s Center on Technology and Society had consulted with the Twitch team as they were considering the update, which goes into effect on January 22 and addresses harassment, hateful conduct, and extremism.
David L. Sifry, VP of ADL’s Center for Technology and…
New York, NY, December 3, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) CEO and National Director Jonathan A. Greenblatt issued the following statement regarding reports that Facebook is "overhauling" its algorithms that detect hate speech:
For years, ADL has advocated that Facebook pay specific attention to rampant hate and extremism on its platform, including antisemitism, racism, xenophobia and all forms of extremism. For too long, the persistent presence of bigotry and conspiracy…
November 24, 2020 UPDATE:
In July 2021, during a investigative radio show and podcast, Alex Mann, an Australian journalist for ABC’s Background Briefing, identified CatboyKami (aka Philip Hedley) as Tor Gustafsson Brookes.
Extremists are constantly adapting and finding ways to reach new audiences, spread and spew their hate and create online content. Their latest tactic involves the use of Omegle, a free online chat service that randomly pairs anonymous users for…
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…
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…
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…
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…