On January 8, 2024, clashes broke out at the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, known as 770, over a passageway allegedly constructed by students from adjacent properties into the synagogue. This passageway, referred to as a tunnel in the media, was discovered in December 2023, and when a cement truck came to fill it, skirmishes broke out between police and involved individuals. Video footage showed men inside and in front of the passageway, both defacing the property and…

Andrew Tate is a British-American former kickboxer and reality television star with millions of social media followers – 8.5 million on X (formerly Twitter) alone.

Longstanding accusations of Israeli organ harvesting have reemerged in the aftermath of the October 7 massacres. This conspiracy theory plays on the blood libel trope, which dates to the Middle Ages and alleges that Jews use the blood of Christian children to bake their Passover bread. In the current Israeli-Palestinian context, organs are substituted for blood, and in some cases, activists are alleging that Israel purposefully kills Palestinians to harvest their organs.   In…

Owen Benjamin (aka Owen Smith) is a former mainstream comedian and actor who has embraced far-right conspiratorial and antisemitic content since 2018. He released a standup comedy performance on October 13, 2023, that includes antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+ and racist rhetoric.  Benjamin, who starred in several films and comedy specials in the early 2010s, experienced significant success as a mainstream conservative comedian, and appeared in the movies The House Bunny and All’s Faire…

Center for Tech & Society explains why access to platform data is important, how APIs work, and evaluates major platforms on their data accessibility.

In the weeks following the October 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, political activists have targeted elected officials – and their offices – with harassment and vandalism. Many of these incidents featured anti-Israel rhetoric, allegations of support for genocide and demands for a ceasefire.   Fewer than half of the elected officials who have reported being targeted by protestors are Jewish. All targeted individuals have expressed support for Israel, and most have…

Jewish and Muslim communities worldwide have been rocked by the impact of Hamas’s October 7, 2023 war on Israel, its massacre of over 1,200 people and Israel’s military response targeting Hamas and other terrorists in Gaza.  That impact has included an increased number of threats against both Jewish and Muslim communities, per the FBI and ADL.  In the U.S., a number of post-October 7 incidents targeting Muslim, Palestinian and Arab American individuals appear to be…

Since the Hamas-led terror massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaigns directly targeting “Zionist” institutions, businesses or individuals, have persisted in response to Israel’s operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. BDS is a component of a long history of campaigns and efforts to delegitimize and isolate Israel. In recent years, this has explicitly focused on the rejection, isolation and marginalization of&nbsp…

Center for Tech & Society checklist maps platform policies, moderation standards, product features and user controls to address graphic violent content online.

ADL and TTP examine whether Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube are potentially facilitating hate group fundraising and merchandise sales.

Since the 1970s, some shareholders of publicly traded companies have used “shareholder proposals” as a form of activism to encourage more responsible corporate behavior and to raise concern on issues that a company may not be adequately managing. Proposals can include demands that companies divest from certain funds or entities, uphold codes of conduct, improve disclosure on environmental and social topics, or make tangible commitments to improving business practices.   …

Toolkits are a popular tool for activists to share information and organize around a topic or policy demand, from city hall resolutions to Congressional action. There is nothing inherently nefarious about activists wishing to effect change. However, in the post-October 7 landscape, some anti-Israel activists’ rhetoric include outright support for terrorism.   In certain cases, the rhetoric in these calls to action crosses the line into support for or minimization of terror. If…

The 2023 shareholder season heralded a new element of shareholder proposals: conspiracy theories. The National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) and National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) each filed such proposals; both are self-described conservative watchdog organizations. NCPPR’s primary focus is public policy research and education, while NLPC promotes ethics in government, advocating for limitations on “big government.”   NCPPR filed at least seven…