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.
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Conspiracy Theories and Anti-Asian Hostility on Twitter
Who/What: After President…
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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…
New York, October 6, 2020 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) CEO and National Director Jonathan A. Greenblatt issued the following statement regarding Facebook’s decision to ban QAnon content from its platform:
Facebook’s decision to ban QAnon from all its platforms is a much needed, if belated, step to purge dangerous conspiracy theories from the platform. QAnon is an extremist movement that fuels antisemitism and promotes misinformation and hate in an…
One-month snapshot reveals Rep. Nadler and Sen. Schumer disproportionally targeted by antisemitic tweets New York, October 6, 2020 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today released a new study finding a high volume of antisemitic tropes and misinformation on Twitter directed at incumbent Jewish members of Congress who are running for re-election.
For the study, ADL’s Center for Technology and Society collected and analyzed all tweets across a single month that were…
October 02, 2020 By David Andrew Weinberg
On September 12th, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized the Iranian government for promoting an antisemitic libel about 9/11 as well as for announcing it will host another Holocaust cartoon contest. Sadly, it appears that repulsive antisemitic cartoon competition is officially now underway.
At the time of Secretary Pompeo’s tweet, little information was available about this worrisome new…
September 24, 2020 While extremists of differing ideologies aligning to further a common goal is not a new phenomenon, recent activity suggests that this overlap is becoming more common as extremist ideas are shared online. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) September 3, 2020 arrest of 30-year-old Michael Robert Solomon and 22-year-old Benjamin Ryan Teeter in Minneapolis is the most recent example of a hybrid ideology. To support their alleged violent goals of destroying the U.S…
Dozens of influencers expected to join 24-Hour Instagram “Freeze” on Wednesday New York, NY, September 15, 2020 ... Nearly two dozen A-list Hollywood celebrities have signed on to the call by Stop Hate for Profit, a coalition of civil rights organizations and advocacy groups, that was issued yesterday, asking a one-day moratorium from posting on Instagram in protest of Facebook’s repeated failures to address hate speech and election disinformation on their platforms.
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Week of Action Includes a 24-Hour Instagram “Freeze” and Culminates with Call to Protect Our Democracy New York, NY, September 14, 2020 ... Members of the Stop Hate for Profit coalition and its network of thousands of supporters across the country will be joining in a coordinated week of action on Instagram this week, demanding parent company Facebook take action to address racism, hate, and disinformation on its platforms.
The actions include a one-day freeze on Instagram…
September 10, 2020
If someone touched your mouth with her mouth voluntary you are not an incel.
If you had unpaid sex you are not an incel
If you had a relationship you are not an incel.
This forum is full or trolls or fakecells.
(post on incels.co responding to poll results)
Incels, or involuntary celibates, are probably the most infamous segment of the “manosphere” – the online morass of misogyny that includes…
August 31, 2020 Under the guise of anti-censorship and free speech, video-hosting service BitChute has become a hotbed for violent, conspiratorial and hate-filled video propaganda, and a recruiting ground for extremists.
BitChute founder Ray Vahey’s concept for the platform came from, in his words, “seeing the increased levels of censorship by the large social media platforms in the last couple of years. Bannings, demonetization, and tweaking algorithms to send…
August 20, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
An FBI Twitter account tweeted out a link to a PDF containing the antisemitic “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion,” as well as FBI documents related to it, with no other context. President Trump on Wednesday offered encouragement to proponents of QAnon, a viral and dangerous conspiracy theory. According to a new study, Facebook “actively promotes further Holocaust-denial content to that user” and “has been unwilling…
August 20, 2020 By David Andrew Weinberg
Israel and the United Arab Emirates announced a historic agreement on August 13th to move toward full normalization of relations, the first such accord between the State of Israel and an Arab state since 1994.
However, peace always has its opponents, and this agreement is no exception. Whenever Israel and Arab governments take important steps to engage and reconcile with each other, extremists throughout the region routinely demonize both…
August 19, 2020 On August 19, one of the FBI’s official twitter handles, the FBI Records Vault, disseminated a link labeled “Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” There has been widespread confusion about the FBI’s motives for doing this, and concern that in doing so the FBI is spreading an antisemitic text. The Protocols is a notorious antisemitic forgery created at the turn of the 20th century by the Czarist secret police and describes an alleged secret plan of…
August 14, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
Israel struck an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to establish “full normalization of relations” even as it forgoes for now plans to annex occupied West Bank territory in order to focus on improving its ties with the rest of the Arab world. Facebook will start banning posts that contain blackface or that promote antisemitic conspiracy theories that Jewish people are running the world. A Georgia congressional candidate, who has a…
August 13, 2020 As Facebook continues to grapple with hate speech and violent extremism across the platform, QAnon conspiracy theorists are using public and private Facebook pages and groups to spread disinformation, racism, and thinly veiled incitement to violence.
QAnon, the wide-reaching conspiracy theory popular among a range of right-wing extremists and supporters of President Trump, follows an anonymous personality “Q.” Followers of Q believe a pedophiliac global elite…
August 13, 2020 Extremists are constantly adapting and finding creative ways to reach new audiences – and new ways to evade content moderators. Their latest efforts are evident on TikTok, the Chinese social media app that allows users to create and share short videos. In less than four years, TikTok has racked up more than 800 million users, and its popularity is fast approaching that of social media giants like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram Each TikTok video has the…
August 07, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
Twenty state attorneys general called on Facebook to better prevent messages of hate, bias and disinformation from spreading, and said the company needed to provide more help to users facing online abuse. The leader of a white supremacist group was arrested in Weatherford, Texas on Saturday after police said he and two other men placed stickers on county property. And the global Jewish community continues to face rising antisemitism due to the…
August 03, 2020 Facebook Groups play a key role on the Facebook platform. Groups are essentially discussion forums organized around an endless number of possible subjects, allowing individuals to pursue their interests and communicate around shared interests. Groups can be public (posts are visible to all Facebook users) or private (individuals must be approved by the group administrator to join and see the posts).
Despite public announcements of efforts to curb hateful speech and…
July 31, 2020 On August 3, 2019, white supremacist Patrick Crusius’ deadly shooting spree at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, took the lives of 23 people and injured 23 more, making it one of the deadliest domestic terror attacks and deadliest hate crimes in U.S. history. It was also the most horrific attack against the Hispanic community in the U.S. in modern memory.
In the twelve months since El Paso, right-wing extremists have not carried out any deadly mass shooting attacks –…
July 24, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
The civil rights groups behind the month-long advertising ad pause of Facebook turned up public pressure with the release of an animated “Dear Mark” video. Almost three years after a conspiracy theory known as QAnon began spreading on dark corners of the internet, Twitter announced that it had removed thousands of accounts linked to the movement. And celebrating the life and legacy of civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis.
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