CCDH: Social media firms failing to act on anti-Semitism

The latest report from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has confirmed that social media companies are ‘failing’ to act on anti-Semitism.

Its report, Failure to Protect, found that social media platforms took no action on 84% of posts containing antisemitic conspiracies, extremism and abuse reported to them using their own tools for reporting malignant content, despite promises to crack down on anti-Jewish hatred.

“Our researchers reported hundreds of racist anti-Jewish posts to social media firms using their user reporting tools; 84% were not acted upon,” stated the non-profit NGO. “Tech companies are consciously giving a free pass to anti-Jewish hatred and the increasing threat to the Jewish community.”

KEY FINDINGS

Key findings from the report revealed that:

• CCDH researchers collected and reported 714 posts containing anti-Jewish hatred, from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter & YouTube between May-June. Collectively, they had been viewed at least 7.3 million times.
• 84% of posts containing anti-Jewish hatred were not acted upon by social media companies. Facebook performed worst, failing to act on 89%, despite announcing new rules to tackle the problem.
• Platforms fail to act on 89% of antisemitic conspiracy theories about 9/11, the Covid pandemic and Jewish control of world affairs.
• Extremist anti-Jewish hate is not acted on. Platforms failed to act on 80% of posts containing Holocaust denial; 74% of posts alleging the blood libel; 70% of racist caricatures of Jewish people; and 70% of neo-Nazi posts.
• Instagram, TikTok and Twitter allow hashtags used for antisemitic content such as #rothschild, #fakejews and #killthejews; that were used in posts that gained over 3.3 million impressions.
• TikTok removes just 5% of accounts that directly racially abuse Jewish users; for example by sending them messages denying the Holocaust.
• Earlier reports by CCDH show platforms have similarly failed to act on dangerous Covid and vaccine misinformation, reported by users.

CCDH RECOMMENDATIONS

Social media companies “must do better”, said CCDH. “Platforms must support, hire and train moderators to remove this hate and those platforms must be held accountable if they fail to remove this hate.” The non-profit recommends the following:

• Introduce financial penalties to incentivise proper moderation.Platforms have profited from the proliferation of hate and misinformation on their platforms. Financial incentives will ensure they no longer invest the bare minimum in content moderation.
• Hire, train and support moderators to remove hate. Current efforts by tech companies to moderate their platforms are clearly inadequate.
• Remove groups dedicated to antisemitism. CCDH identified groups dedicated to sharing antisemitism with a total of 38,000 members.
• Instagram, Tiktok and Twitter must act on antisemitic hashtags that their own analytics show have been used for content viewed millions of times.
• Ban accounts that send racist abuse directly to Jewish users.

Click here to read the full report.

The world’s top brands recently signed Conscious Advertising Network’s (CAN) open letter urging social media company CEOs to tackle online racism and discrimination. Click here to read more.