New York, NY, May 8, 2025, … Researchers at the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Center for Technology and Society (CTS) found that Jewish Members of Congress have experienced a nearly five-fold increase in antisemitic harassment on Facebook since Meta rolled back its moderation policy at the start of the year.
Following this policy shift, ADL stated its deep concerns, saying that this change would be a "step backward" and allow increased hate, antisemitism, and toxicity on Facebook and potentially its other platforms as well. To measure how much harmful content this policy change might allow through, ADL researchers collected and analyzed toxic and antisemitic comments directed at the 30 Jewish Members of Congress with Facebook accounts.
Key Findings from the Research:
- The average number of comments per day appears to have increased sharply (by a factor of eight) from February 4, 2025, including both hateful and non-hateful comments.
- Until Feb. 4, there was an average of 6.5 antisemitic comments per day. They then spiked and remained much higher, to almost 30 per day through April 7).
- This increase includes a nearly five-fold spike in antisemitic comments per day on the Facebook accounts of the 30 Jewish Members of Congress with Facebook accounts.
- The proportions of antisemitic and toxic content remained relatively consistent, suggesting that Meta is dialing down all content moderation, allowing an increase in the total volume of toxic and hateful comments.
“Meta bears responsibility for the harm that its recent moderation policy roll-back has caused as it is enabling, if not actively encouraging, antisemitic, hateful, and toxic activity on its platforms,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “This hate targeted at Jewish Members of Congress is not only unacceptable, but also a reflection of what all American Jews and regular users experience online daily across Meta’s social media platforms. The findings of this study reinforce our determination to request appropriate content moderation on Meta’s platforms and to work with all stakeholders to protect all online users from hate and harassment.”
ADL previously found that the majority of Americans who experience online harassment are harassed on Facebook, 61 percent in the previous year, according to CTS’s 2024 annual survey of online hate and harassment. Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the US by number of users; even still, the number of people who report harassment there is out of proportion to its popularity.
Moreover, ADL’s latest social media scorecard released in September 2024, showed that Meta platforms (Facebook and Instagram) responded to zero cases of antisemitic content when reported as average users. ADL and others warned that dialing back content moderation efforts would allow toxic and hateful content to surge.
“Rolling back content moderation practices means that toxicity and antisemitism are allowed to thrive even more than in the past,” said Daniel Kelley, Director of Strategy and Operations, and Interim Head of the ADL Center for Technology and Society. “ADL research has consistently shown that marginalized groups are the most targeted with online identity-based harassment and that the consequence for regular users is too often to withdraw from these spaces. Meta should seriously reconsider this decision or find better ways to protect users, especially those routinely targeted with hate.”
Methodology
ADL researchers collected 337,763 comments from the Facebook pages of the 30 self-identified Jewish Members of Congress with Facebook accounts between January 1 and April 7, 2025 (one additional member of Congress with a Facebook account was not included because the account was created only recently). ADL then analyzed these comments using ADL’s own antisemitism classifier to rate the likelihood of antisemitic content in each comment and a toxicity classifier (Google Jigsaw’s Perspective API). More details about the methodology are available in the report.
ADL is the leading anti-hate organization in the world. Founded in 1913, its timeless mission is “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of antisemitism and bias, using innovation and partnerships to drive impact. A global leader in combating antisemitism, countering extremism and battling bigotry wherever and whenever it happens, ADL works to protect democracy and ensure a just and inclusive society for all. More at www.adl.org.