July 10, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Civil rights leaders came out of a meeting Tuesday with Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg saying they didn’t make progress on #StopHateforProfit’s demands over how the social media giant polices the platform for hate and misinformation. Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson apologized for a series of antisemitic Instagram posts, one of which included a quote about Jews falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler. A county chairman in…

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…

June 16, 2020 On June 15, 2020, a federal grand jury indicted Matthew Patrick Slatzer of Canton, Ohio, on weapons charges. Slatzer, a known neo-Nazi, was arrested in February after bringing a gun into a Canton bar, and was charged with possession of a firearm by a person with a domestic violence conviction. The investigation began after Slatzer -- who, according to police reports, was wearing a sword and hatchet on his belt -- entered a business in Stow, Ohio, on May 3, 2020. He allegedly…

June 10, 2020 Some vocal extremists are showing up at the ongoing protests over the murder of George Floyd and police brutality. The extremists, who subscribe to a range of right wing ideologies, do not appear to be following any overarching plan or strategy, and are turning up at protests of all sizes, nationwide. Some who share the protesters’ opposition to law enforcement and government are joining the demonstrations. Others, carrying weapons, are acting as self-appointed security…

May 22, 2020 On May 1, 2020, when boogaloo activists organized a protest against coronavirus public safety measures in Raleigh, North Carolina, many attendees carried firearms in defiance of state laws prohibiting guns at public demonstrations. It was a scene played out across the country in recent weeks, as boogalooers are energized by resistance to lockdown restrictions, which they view as tyrannical government overreach. Boogaloo adherents have shown up at numerous lockdown protests, waving…

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 21, 2020 Headline: Coronavirus: Anti-Immigration, Xenophobia and Homophobia Short description: Extremists are using fear of the virus to stoke nativist, homophobic hate As the coronavirus continues to surge globally, virus-related conspiracy theories are proliferating online. These antisemitic, xenophobic, hateful messages spread misplaced blame and misinformation, making it more difficult to access accurate information while elevating fear and anxiety. While some of these…

April 20, 2020 As the coronavirus continues to surge globally, virus-related conspiracy theories are proliferating online. These antisemitic, xenophobic, hateful messages spread misplaced blame and misinformation, making it more difficult to access accurate information while elevating fear and anxiety. While some of these messages are new, many are simply old tropes repackaged for a modern pandemic. Conspiracy theorists are positing that the coronavirus was manufactured by humans,…

April 20, 2020 Americans’ response to the coronavirus pandemic now includes a spate of nationwide rallies decrying stay-at-home orders and calling for “reopening” the economy. While many of the protests calling for the reopening of the economy and the lifting of state-issued quarantine mandates have been organized by more mainstream conservative organizations, a number have been sponsored in whole or part by identified extremists and a range of rally participants have carried…

April 20, 2020 As the coronavirus continues to surge globally, virus-related conspiracy theories are proliferating online. These antisemitic, xenophobic, hateful messages spread misplaced blame and misinformation, making it more difficult to access accurate information while elevating fear and anxiety. While some of these messages are new, many are simply old tropes repackaged for a modern pandemic. ADL is tracking some of the coronavirus-related anti-Asian incidents here. Sinophobia …

April 19, 2020 By Dr. Mark Pitcavage On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb in front of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast destroyed the building, killing 168 men, women and children and injuring hundreds more. Twenty-five years later, the Oklahoma City bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history.  McVeigh and his accomplice, Terry Nichols, were not part of any large, well-funded terrorist organization; they…

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. …