‘Hateful, antisemitic comments’
Elon Musk urged to help combat spread of harmful rhetoric on Twitter
At a House hearing this week, U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Parkland, delivered a fiery condemnation of the increase in antisemitic posts on Twitter, then posted a video of his comments on the social media app.
The congressman’s account received more than 200 antisemitic, hateful or racist comments, something he said has happened repeatedly since he was elected last year.
“Once the video was posted, the reply section of my post was flooded with hateful, antisemitic comments and images,” Moskowitz said in a letter released Friday to Twitter owner Elon Musk in which he described the rise in antisemitism on Twitter and his own experiences.
“Twitter has allowed hateful rhetoric to run rampant without consideration of the real and dangerous consequences to your users and the Jewish community,” Moskowitz wrote.
Moskowitz asked Musk to join efforts to combat its spread. At the Feb. 8 hearing, Moskowitz cited research from the Anti-Defamation League that found that in the two weeks after Musk became Twitter CEO, antisemitic content soared. ADL found a 6.3% increase in tweets — not counting retweets — “referencing ‘Jews’ or ‘Judaism’ with an antisemitic sentiment” compared to the two previous weeks.
Other Moskowitz tweets that have generated antisemitic comments include a video honoring the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
In January, after Moskowitz condemned an antisemitic demonstration at Florida Atlantic University, “the comments section of my tweets was flooded with hateful comments.”
The spread of antisemitism via social media was a major focus of a conference Thursday at the United Nations. U.S. and international leaders said that’s now a prime way to spread antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories.