May 24, 2021 As the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas takes hold, Israelis – Jew and Arab - are facing the “day after” and the critical work of healing and repair that needs to take place within its own society and citizenry.  As thousands of Hamas rockets sent Israelis fleeing for shelter over the course of the eleven-day conflict, another wound has been opened within Israeli society: nights of violence, looting and horrifying expressions of hatred by Arab…

May 24, 2021 Against the backdrop of violence in the Middle East, ADL noted a rise of antisemitism across social media. Although much of that antisemitism focuses on alleged “evil” perpetrated by Zionists or Zionism, there has also been a significant increase in classic antisemitism, including tropes of Jews as controlling, greedy and immoral. To explore this further, the Center on Extremism (COE) researched the prevalence of posts that include language invoking classic…

May 14, 2021 By: David Andrew Weinberg  Less than a year ago, a high-profile sermon at the Grand Mosque in Mecca fueled speculation Saudi Arabia might be prepared to follow some of its neighbors’ footsteps by making peace with Israel.  However, clerics at Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mosque in Mecca as well as the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina sent a starkly different series of messages this week, in how they…

May 13, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Fighting between Israel and Hamas escalated in what has become the heaviest flare-up since the 2014 war, with extremist violence also erupting in Israeli cities with large Arab and Jewish communities.  A new poll from Pew finds that most Jews believe antisemitism in America has increased in recent years and said they feel less safe now than they once did. The Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence arm is setting up a dedicated team to…

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…