Antisemitism 'rife' across social media platforms with young people most exposed to it
Young people are exposed to “widespread” antisemitism online, with hateful content being introduced to young people via platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, new research says.
A report by campaign group Hope Not Hate found that antisemitism is commonly and widely spread through conspiracy theories online, with a major spike during the pandemic.
It found that Google searches for an antisemitic conspiracy theory which claims a secret global elite is controlling world events, “New World Order”, reached their highest level for 15 years in March 2020.
It also found a forum on message board site Reddit dedicated to conspiracies, many containing anti-Semitic tropes, grew by 500,000 users between February and November 2020.
Still more concerning, it warned that potentially millions of young people are being introduced to conspiracy theories and antisemitism via Instagram and TikTok, where Hope Not Hate said the theories were also prevalent.
According to the report, there are “millions” of results for hashtags relating to antisemitic conspiracy theories on Instagram, while on TikTok a collection of just three hashtags linked to antisemitism were viewed more than 25 million times in six months.
The research noted that almost 70% of global Instagram users are aged 13 to 34, while 69% of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24.
“It’s simply astounding that despite 10 years of attempts to eradicate hate speech, we were able to find antisemitism on every social media platform we investigated,” Joe Mulhall, Hope Not Hate head of research said.
“While social media companies have been struggling to get their act together, a new generation of social media users have been introduced to antisemitic ideas they would be unlikely to encounter elsewhere.
He added that technology and social media platform were to blame for their lack of action which has “created online spaces where antisemitism is allowed to flourish”, “leaving Jewish communities exposed to the risk of terrorism”.
“Enough is enough. It’s now time that we see a strong commitment to banning and moderating any and all forms of antisemitism and hate speech across the tech sector”, Mr Mulhall added.
The research, entitled Antisemitism in the Digital Age: Online Anti-Semitic Hate, Holocaust Denial, Conspiracy Ideologies and Terrorism in Europe, found that the most extreme and violent antisemitic content was found on more niche platforms such as Telegram, Parler and 4chan.
It was carried out in collaboration with Germany-based anti-hate group the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and Swedish anti-hate group the Expo Foundation.
In response to the report, a Facebook company spokesperson said: “Antisemitism is completely unacceptable and we don’t allow it anywhere on Instagram.
“We’ve always removed attacks against people based on their religion, and last year we made important updates to our policies, to remove any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust, as well as more implicit hate speech, such as harmful stereotypes that Jewish people control the world.
“We’ll continue to work with partners like Hope Not Hate, while developing new ways to remove hateful content and block harmful hashtags more quickly”.
A spokesperson for TikTok said: "TikTok condemns antisemitism, and we work aggressively to combat hate by proactively removing accounts and content that violate our policies and redirecting searches for hateful ideologies to our Community Guidelines.
"We will keep strengthening our tools for fighting antisemitic content and welcome the opportunity to work with HOPE not hate, as we already do with many others around the world, to understand evolving trends and help us to regularly evaluate and improve our policies and enforcement processes."