Threads of Hate: How Twitter's Content Moderation Misses the Mark
Article
Twitter’s decision to reinstate influential banned accounts allowed CTS to examine how they act as nodes in broader networks and exploit inadequate policies
Americans’ Views on Generative Artificial Intelligence, Hate and Harassment
Article
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) has dominated news headlines for its potential to transform how we work, write, and play. For example, OpenAI’s ChatGPT allows people to ask various questions, summarize a book or write a new song in the style of their favorite musical artist. AI-enhanced search tools return summaries of online content, rather than a list of links to different webpages. Other tools create realistic photos or pieces of artwork from a description. Some tools create…
Evaluating Twitter's Policies Six Months After Elon Musk's Purchase
Article
Policy and enforcement developments since Elon Musk acquisition of Twitter and what they mean for enforcement of hate speech policies and protecting users.
Social Media Election Policies: The Good, the Bad and the Misinformed
Article
False and misleading social media harms elections, undermines public trust, normalizes baseless challenges to elections, stokes harassment and incites violence.
Letter to World Rugby Chairman on South Africa Disinviting Israeli Team
Letter
February 15, 2023
Sir Bill Beaumont
World Rugby Chairman
Dear Chairman Beaumont,
The Anti-Defamation League is a 110-year-old American organization with a mission to “fight the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment for all.”
I am writing to you regarding the South African Rugby Union’s (SARU) decision to disinvite the Israeli rugby team Tel Aviv Heat to participate in the South African Mzansi Challenge…
Anti-Israel Movement in the US Demonizes Zionism, Blames Israel for Palestinian Terrorism
Article
Last month, we witnessed a peak in the already volatile reality between Israelis and Palestinians. On January 26, Israeli forces raided the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, reportedly in order to thwart an imminent terror attack against Israelis by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group. Nine Palestinians, including PIJ members and at least one civilian, were killed and others wounded.
The following day, a Palestinian terrorist murdered seven Israeli civilians near a…
January 20, 2023
Ms. Ada Colau Ballano
Mayor of Barcelona
Barcelona Municipal Council
Pl. de Sant Jaume
Barcelona
Dear Mayor Colau,
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is the world’s leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to fight…
ADL’s analysis found Meta has accepted large sums of money for ads on hateful topics such as antisemitism and transphobia. In some cases, Meta even accepted money for ads that violated its hate speech policy.
Moroccan Textbooks Teach Appreciation of Jewish Life and Tolerance in the Kingdom
Article
By Carole Nuriel and Aykan Erdemir
An examination of textbooks used in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of Moroccan state schools during the 2021-2022 school year indicate that tolerance and diversity are core to the curriculum promoted across Moroccan society. The excerpts on Judaism and Jews that Morocco’s Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training provided to ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) show that the country’s elementary school textbooks depict Jews as an…
Major Platforms’ Midterm Election Policies: Are They Enough?
Article
Summary
The United States midterm electoral campaigns are in full force as candidates prepare advertisements and voter outreach. Social media is an integral part of their campaigning as more than half of all Americans get news from a social media platform.
But false or misleading information (including misinformation, spread without malice or coordination, and disinformation, purposely created to manipulate or cause harm) runs rampant on platforms, subverting democracy and leading…
Swatting is the deliberate and malicious act of reporting a false crime or emergency to evoke an aggressive response (often a SWAT team) from a law enforcement agency to a target's residence or place of work to harass and intimidate them.
Alarmingly, swatting appears to be on the rise. Kevin Kolbye, a former FBI agent with expertise in swatting, estimates incidents have jumped from 400 cases in 2011 to over 1,000 in 2019. Unfortunately, the actual number is unknown because the FBI does not…
Twitter’s Failure to Enforce Its Policy Against Antisemitism
Article
An investigation from ADL’s Center for Technology and Society (CTS) found Twitter did not remove over 200 blatantly antisemitic tweets accusing Jewish people of pedophilia, invoking Holocaust denial, and sharing oft-repeated conspiracy theories. To test Twitter’s enforcement of its policies on antisemitism, CTS reported 225 strongly antisemitic tweets over nine weeks through ongoing communications with the platform. Of the reported tweets, Twitter only removed 11, or 5% of the…
Iranian Commemoration of Al-Quds Day Includes Anti-Semitic and Harsh Anti-Israel Expressions
Article
by: Shaya Lerner Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day, which takes place on the last Friday of Ramadan, was initiated in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic revolution in Iran, as a show of solidarity with the Palestinians and to assert the Islamic claim over Jerusalem. While events are held around the world, in Iran, it is often marked by a hateful demonstration of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment, manifest in government organized rallies and other activities. Before this…
by: Shaya Lerner Iran’s newest “Holocaust contest” exhibition opened on May 14 in a gallery in Tehran. According to Iranian news reports, the contest received over 864 submissions from participants around the world. Of those, 150 cartoons from 50 countries were accepted, with representation of cartoonists from Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Indonesia, Peru, Syria, Turkey and Yemen, among others. Contest organizer Masoud Shojai Tabatabaei insisted the event was not to…
Iran's Second International Holocaust Cartoon Exhibition Opens On May 14
Article
by: Shaya Lerner On May 14, 2016, the second international Holocaust Cartoon Contest exhibition will open in Iran, with the first place winner – reportedly to be announced in June – receiving a large cash prize. According to reports in the Iranian press, the May 14th date was chosen to coincide with Nakba Day (catastrophe day), the term used by Palestinian to refer to the events surrounding Israel’s independence in 1948. The contest reportedly received over 800…
In Iran, Holocaust Denial and Mockery are Alive and Well
Article
by: Shaya Lerner Despite the international community’s reengagement with a more “open” and “moderate” Iran, some things in Iranian society haven’t changed, including the prevalence of Holocaust mockery and denial. While President Rouhani hasn’t touted the issue like his predecessor Ahmadinejad had, recent announcements indicate that the questioning of the Holocaust is very much alive and well within Iranian society. In December, the Tehran…