Social media rollbacks have caused ‘explosion of hate,' says antisemitism watchdog

The Hindu

19 hours ago

U.S. social media giants have rolled back content moderation in recent months, leading to an "explosion of hate" online, according to the head of a leading New York-based antisemitism watchdog.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, says antisemitism has surged since the start of the Gaza war, after Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
In the United States in particular, universities have become the setting of vocal protests against Israel's military onslaught in Gaza, as well as sometimes tense counter-demonstrations.
"Social media companies and big tech more broadly has a critical role to play" in fighting hate speech, Greenblatt told AFP in a recent interview.
Yet "the big companies, the most profitable businesses in the world, the most innovative companies in the history of business, have decided to outsource moderation to their users."
In the United States, tech leaders broadly fell in line around U.S. President Donald Trump after he won re-election last year.
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg in January ended Facebook's U.S. fact-checking programme, of which AFP was a part, after it faced criticism from conservatives.
He also rolled back content moderation on Facebook and Instagram, saying users would however be able to add context to posts.
The move followed Elon Musk, until recently a Trump ally, repealing content moderation on X, formerly Twitter, in the name of "free speech" after acquiring the company in 2022.
"From Amazon to X, from Alphabet to Meta, all these businesses need to be far more proactive because, as they have retreated from moderating the services; as flawed as it was, things are now far worse," Greenblatt said.
"We've seen an explosion of hate on these services since they've pulled back," he added.
Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed more than 57,523 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers its figures to be reliable.
"Antisemitism can certainly be exacerbated by events in the Middle East," Greenblatt said.
A string of incidents has targeted Jews in the United States in recent months.
Two Israeli embassy workers were murdered in Washington.
A firebombing attack at a protest in Colorado supporting Israeli hostages in Gaza killed an 82-year-old woman.
And tensions persist on university campuses.
Universities have "become breeding grounds for antisemitism", Greenblatt said.
"We've seen a massive rise in harassment and vandalism and violence on university campuses," Greenblatt said.
The ADL recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the United States in 2024.
It said that a little over half of 5,000 anti-Israel rallies it tracked that year involved antisemitic messaging in the form of signs, chants or speeches.
But many pro-Palestinian demonstrators, who include a number of Jewish students, have disavowed antisemitism and criticised officials equating it with opposition to Israel.
Since taking office in January, Trump has targeted elite US universities, including Harvard and Columbia, which he and his allies accuse of being hotbeds of liberal, anti-conservative bias and antisemitism.
He has sought to control college curriculums and staffing as well as slash funding, while deporting foreign student activists associated with the pro-Palestinian movement.
Greenblatt said the ADL was "grateful when Trump came into office saying he was going to tackle" antisemitism, then "released an executive order shortly after his inauguration" to help fight the issue.
But, Greenblatt said, "we are concerned about the possibility of overreach."
"Whereas we think real work needs to happen to help Harvard and Columbia correct the issues they were unwilling to address themselves, we don't want the cure to be worse than the disease," Greenblatt said, without elaborating.