May 13, 2021 This blog post is the first in a series of three articles that will explore the unique challenges audio content moderation poses for platforms creating audio-focused digital spaces. This first article focuses on the choices around recording audio, and includes recommendations regarding Clubhouse’s current practices around recording. The second will discuss reviewing audio. The third will be on current approaches and models of audio content moderation that have been publicly…

May 10, 2021 On April 14, 2021, both Al Qaeda and the pro-Al Qaeda propaganda outlet Jaysh Al-Malahim Al-Electroni (Electronic Battle Army) released magazines that include articles about the cultural strife in America and the West more broadly. The articles touched on the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection, the racial justice protests in summer 2020, and the deepening of American political divisions. Both articles portray the West as declining and divided. The Jaysh Al-Malahim article,…

May 07, 2021 By David Andrew Weinberg On the last Friday of Ramadan every year, the Government of Iran organizes what it calls Global Quds (i.e. Jerusalem) Day, which it uses as an opportunity to spread horrific propaganda calling for the destruction of the State of Israel, as well as messages of support for terrorist organizations and a deluge of antisemitic hate speech.  This year was no exception. On Friday, May 7, the main English-language Twitter account attributed to Iran…

May 07, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Four months after his ouster from Facebook and Instagram, the suspension of former president Donald Trump was upheld by the Facebook Oversight Board. A former leader in a violent neo-Nazi group was sentenced Tuesday to 41 months in prison for harassing journalists who reported on his activities and others. Police arrested a 29-year-old man on hate crime charges in connection with the vandalization of several Bronx synagogues, which included the…

April 30, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 ADL counted 196 cases of antisemitic “Zoombombing” attacks in the U.S. last year, including 114 against Jewish institutions, according to its annual report released this week. Three Georgia men were indicted on federal hate crime charges in connection with the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot to death while jogging through a South Georgia neighborhood last year. Authorities in New York City are looking for the…

April 22, 2021 Image: Fox News In the days following Tucker Carlson’s vitriolic, xenophobic commentary about demographic change, most white supremacist reactions were supportive of the Fox News personality and praised him for railing against “white genocide.” Some suggested that Carlson is finally showing his true colors and fully embracing white nationalism. One 4Chan poster wrote: “As predicted, Carlson is our guy.” Other extremists argued Carlson is not…

April 21, 2021 Screenshot: ABC News Extremists consistently use mainstream news stories as opportunities to share their racist, often violent, views on a range of social media and online platforms. The April 20, 2021 verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial was no exception. Chauvin was found guilty on all three charges in the May 2020 murder of George Floyd. Note: Many of the comments documented in this piece include racist, violent and otherwise disturbing language. Prior to the…

April 21, 2021 Burt Colucci speaks during private NSM gathering on April 16, 2021 UPDATE: On January 4, 2022, the Maricopa County Attorney’s office indicted Colucci on two counts of misdemeanor disorderly conduct and one count of felony disorderly conduct. On April 19, 2021, police in Chandler, Arizona, arrested the leader of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM), Burt Colucci of Kissimmee, Florida, for aggravated assault after he allegedly pointed a handgun at a Black…

April 21, 2021 The verdict has come down. The jury found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of second-degree and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd.  On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old Black man living in Minnesota, was killed while being arrested by the police. Derek Chauvin, a white police officer, pinned Floyd to the ground while he was…

April 16, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 The former police officer who was recorded on camera fatally shooting Daunte Wright during a traffic stop was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday. ADL called on Fox News to remove primetime opinion host Tucker Carlson after he openly embraced a white supremacist conspiracy theory in front of millions of viewers. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a watered-down hate crimes bill into law this week, one that ADL and other…

April 14, 2021 Appearing on a March 31, 2021 webinar organized by University of California-Berkeley lecturer and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) board chairman Hatem Bazian, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement co-founder Omar Barghouti veered into troubling rhetoric, expressing support for what is essentially a litmus test conditioning Jewish participation in interfaith dialogue on condemnation of Israel. Barghouti stated, “Interfaith dialogue is perfectly fine so…

April 14, 2021 Don’t talk to strangers. It’s a rule that some parents teach their children from a young age. But there’s one website that encourages users to do just that, and it’s growing increasingly popular among tweens and teens. It is being used in ways that young people and their families should learn more about. Created in 2009, Omegle is a free website that randomly pairs users in one-on-one video chat sessions. The site has seen a resurgence over the past year,…

April 09, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Cameron Shea, a 25-year-old leader of the neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen, pleaded guilty to threatening journalists and activists with Nazi posters and menacing messages. Coronavirus lockdowns last year shifted some antisemitic hatred online, where conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic’s medical and economic devastation abounded, researchers reported. The Arkansas Senate on Wednesday approved a stripped-down hate crimes bill…

April 06, 2021 The best-known images from the January 6 rally and assault on the U.S. Capitol largely feature men, decked out in camouflage, MAGA hats and QAnon paraphernalia. But women made up about 14 percent of those who have been charged in relation to activity that day. This is an unusually high number of women for a right-wing extremist event, which is attributable at least in part to the high concentration of QAnon supporters at the January 6 events, and to the significant number of…

April 05, 2021 Update: The Nation of Islam released an official statement on April 6 regarding the attack. NOI attempted to distance itself from the violence, but did confirm that Noah Green was previously connected to the Nation, stating that he “may have attended” Saviours’ Day 2020 and that in late summer of 2020 “he started the process to begin his study to become a member [of NOI], but he did not complete the process.” The press release mourned Green as a …

April 02, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 More than half of American Jews continue to experience or witness antisemitic incidents in the form of comments, slurs or threats, according to a new ADL poll. A man suspected of brutally assaulting an Asian American woman in New York City in broad daylight was arrested after surveillance video of the attack drew widespread condemnation. Conservative politicians, including former Trump cabinet member Richard Grenell and freshman congressman Madison…

March 31, 2021 4.12.21 UPDATE:   The White Lives Matter marches that took place on Sunday, April 11 were very sparsely attended. Counter-protesters made up the majority of attendees -- and in some cases were the only attendees.  Huntington Beach saw the largest rally, with around 10 WLM marchers, some bearing extremist symbols and others with various right-wing flags, and 500 counter-protesters at its peak before being…