June 25, 2020 Last week a group of organizations launched Stop Hate for Profit with one simple goal: convince social media companies to finally put people over profit. We launched asking advertisers to join the campaign and pause their spending on Facebook and Instagram ads for the month of July 2020. You might be asking: Why Facebook? Haven’t they done better lately? What are the biggest problems you’re tracking? Why Facebook? Our partner organizations have been working with…
258 Results
Back
June 22, 2020 Facebook has been claiming that it is effectively addressing hate on its platforms. ADL and others, however, have continued to expose egregious examples of online hate, misinformation and extremism across the company’s products, particularly on Facebook and Instagram. Whether or not these posts technically violate Facebook’s complicated guidelines around hate speech, as a result of the platform’s casual placement of ads, paid advertisements run a risk of being…
June 19, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
ADL convened a coalition of civil rights groups encouraging corporate advertisers to pull spending from Facebook during the month of July to protest the company’s failure to make its platform a less-hostile place. The Supreme Court ruled that federal civil rights law protects gay, lesbian and transgender workers from discrimination. School textbooks used in institutions controlled by the terror group Hezbollah are teaching children “egregious…
May 08, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
Antisemitic signs and imagery are seen at anti-quarantine rallies across the country, including in Chicago, where a protester held up a sign with a Nazi slogan that appeared on the gates of Auschwitz. A new report outlines the failures of Steam to adequately address the prevalence of extremists and neo-Nazis on the gaming platform. And in California, a man was seen donning a Ku Klux Klan hood as he shopped for groceries.
Read on for more on these…
May 04, 2020 On March 24, 2020, a white supremacist interrupted a webinar about antisemitism hosted by a Massachusetts Jewish student group by pulling his shirt collar down to reveal a swastika tattoo on his chest. A day later, a similar incident occurred in California when someone disrupted an online class hosted by a JCC (Jewish Community Center); the perpetrator launched into a minutes-long, profanity-laced, antisemitic rant and removed his shirt to display a swastika tattoo on his chest…
April 08, 2020 As more of the world rightfully takes social distancing measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, the audience for the Zoom video conferencing app has expanded tremendously. As with all sudden rapid growth of digital social spaces, this expansion has revealed new platform vulnerabilities and opportunities for bad actors to take advantage of those vulnerabilities. ADL has been tracking the prevalence of “Zoombombing” over the last several weeks -- where bad…
April 08, 2020 By now the term “zoombombing,” describing the phenomenon of virtual meetings being disrupted by graphic or hateful messages, has become increasingly familiar. With “safer-at-home” and physical distancing measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, many business and community meetings must rely on video-conferencing tools like Zoom to engage in organizing, educational activities, and worship. Disturbingly, some of these meetings are being disrupted by…
April 03, 2020 As our online lives have become even more central to the way we work, communicate and socialize in this unprecedented time, Washington state has shown tremendous leadership in enacting legislation protecting targets and victims of online hate and harassment, which can have serious and potentially fatal consequences. This significant anti-swatting law, signed by Gov. Jay Inslee today, holds accountable individuals who seek to weaponize law enforcement to attack others.
…
April 03, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
Internet trolls, including some white supremacists, are increasingly taking part in “Zoombombing” – hijacking meetings on the popular video communication app and posting inappropriate content, as well as white supremacist and antisemitic messages. An office for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Florida was vandalized over the weekend with swastikas. Antisemitic pastor and broadcaster Rick Wiles said that the COVID-19…
March 30, 2020 As the coronavirus pandemic has led to more people spending time at home and conducting school and business online, an increasing focus has been placed on certain technologies and their ability to facilitate hate and harassment. Reports of “Zoombombing,” a reference to the popular video conferencing platform Zoom in which virtual meetings are disrupted by graphic or threatening messages or actions, often including those that contain hate speech or pornographic…
March 24, 2020 As America responds to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, we here at ADL are actively mobilized and continuing our important work of “Fighting Hate for Good.” While recognizing we live in uncertain and unpredictable times, we also realize our vital mission to “stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all” continues, and remains just as important now as it did a week, a month, or a year ago.
While…
February 26, 2020 On February 26, 2020, authorities arrested five members of Atomwaffen Division, including former Texas state Atomwaffen leader John Cameron Denton. These are just the latest detentions targeting the neo-Nazi group, whose active membership has been decimated in the last two years by a steady stream of federal charges and arrests.
Denton is charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, and interstate threats to injure, stemming from his alleged role…
Remarks by Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO, ADL January 29, 2020 Good morning, Chairwoman Maloney, Ranking Member Jordan and distinguished Members of the Committee: On behalf of ADL, thank you for the opportunity to testify here today and share our perspective.
I am feeling inspired because I just returned from the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem where more than 45 world leaders recommitted themselves to addressing hate.
I want to give a special thank you to Chairwoman Maloney for…
Bipartisan legislation introduced in Washington and Maryland New York, NY, January 28, 2020 … Today, ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) announced the launch of “Backspace Hate,” a national initiative to fight the escalating problems of harmful online activities, including cyber harassment, cyber stalking, swatting, and doxing, through updating legislation and raising awareness. As part of this effort, several states are introducing bipartisan bills that address severe…
January 16, 2020 In recent years, deadly white supremacist violence at houses of worship in Pittsburgh, Christchurch, and Poway demonstrated the clear line from violent hate speech and radicalization online to in-person violence. With perpetrators of horrific violence taking inspiration from online forums, leveraging the anonymity and connectivity of the internet, and developing sophisticated strategies to spread their messages, the stakes couldn’t be higher in tackling online extremism…
January 09, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
An estimated 25,000 people marched across the Brooklyn Bridge and then gathered for a community rally, co-sponsored by ADL, in a show of strength and solidarity in response to the recent spate of anti-Semitic violence in the New York City metro area. The U.S. attack that killed an Iranian military leader has spawned a range of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jews “pushing” war against Iran. Music-streaming service Spotify is under…
December 02, 2019 Telegram, the online social networking app, may not be a household name in the U.S. like Twitter or Facebook, but with well over 200 million users, it has a significant audience. And it is gaining popularity. Telegram has become a very popular online gathering place for the international white supremacist community and other extremist groups who have been displaced or banned from more popular sites.
The platform, which is a cloud-based chat and group messaging app,…
November 25, 2019 In his remarkable address at ADL’s Never is Now Summit last week, the comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen called out major social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, for failing to stop the spread of anti-Semitism and hate on their platforms. “All this hate and violence is being facilitated by a handful of internet companies that amount to the greatest propaganda machine in history,” Baron Cohen said in his remarks,…
Remarks by George Selim, Senior Vice President for Programs, ADL September 18, 2019 Washington, D.C., September 18, 2019
My name is George Selim, I serve as the Senior Vice President of Programs at ADL, the Anti-Defamation League. For decades, ADL has fought against bigotry and anti-Semitism by exposing extremist groups and individuals who spread hate and incite violence. Today, ADL is the foremost nongovernmental authority on domestic terrorism, extremism, hate groups and hate…
September 09, 2019 New anti-Semitic trolling efforts have emerged on several online platforms in recent weeks, with users weaponizing lists of Jews by variously posting their images, personal information such as names, places of employment, and schools they attend, as well as links to the targets’ social media accounts.
Lists of Jews in any form on white supremacist platforms is alarming, especially given the ongoing threats of anti-Semitic violence and targeting of synagogues and…