Addressing plague of online hatred
As a widely recognized symbol of freedom and democratic government, the iconic, centuries-old U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, stands in sharp contrast to the dark, repugnant aspects of our modern online reality. Earlier this month, the virulent bigotry that pervades social media was the focus of a special international hearing at the U.S. Congress that I was honoured to participate in.
Toxic, hate-driven content increasingly infects popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. In this virtual space, as with the situation offline, Jews are among the most targeted by racists, with dangerous real-world consequences for Jewish communities around the world. In recent years, many violent attacks on Jews originated online.
The summit of the Inter-Parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism, co-chaired by U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Canadian MP Anthony Housefather, featured tough questioning of senior executives of major social media companies.
During the session, current and former members of national legislatures from the U.S., Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, the European
Union and Israel, along with special envoys from Canada, the U.S., Israel and the Organization of American States, took Meta (Facebook), Twitter, TikTok and YouTube to task for their failure to meaningfully reduce, if not eliminate, the rampant antiJewish hate, including Holocaust denial, on their platforms.
Task force members cited the chronically slow response times of social media companies to remove hate content, their lack of transparency, the insidious role of algorithms that push antisemitic content and the refusal to tackle antisemitism veiled in anti-Zionism. Disappointingly, executives mostly obfuscated in their responses.
Without absolving these platforms of their role in this problem, it’s important to note they’re not creating the vile antisemitic content but rather are its main disseminators.
Given the gravity and complexity of this issue, it’s difficult in this limited space to do justice to the work of the task force, of which I’m proud to be a founding member.
Reflecting the seriousness of the Washington hearing, Housefather set the stage well in his opening remarks:
“Hate and disinformation targeting Jewish communities online know no borders,” he said. “Despite the widespread proliferation of antisemitism online, social media platforms either can’t or won’t keep up with the tactical evolution of bad actors. At the moment, platform efforts appear to be a whack-a-mole of ad hoc content removal followed by tactical evolution and circumvention. Moderation approaches have been wildly inconsistent, especially in non-English speaking jurisdictions. Rather than simply being an issue of removing content, this challenge comes down to the fundamental business models of the platforms and the algorithmic systems underpinning their products.”
While my initial intervention focused on Twitter and its lack of resolve to block the antisemitic account of Canadian “anti-racism” consultant, Laith Marouf, I directed my closing remarks to all social media companies:
“In today’s world, the impact of social media platforms is indisputably titanic. But with power and prominence come responsibility and accountability, which you, the executives of these massive companies, have been derelict in your duty to do right.
“Inaction is complicity in the tragic consequences of online antisemitism going unchecked. The vile, unregulated racist content on the dark corners of your social media platforms is increasingly spilling onto our streets, into our communities, onto our campuses and schoolyards with real-life threats to our safety, freedom and ultimately undermining our very way of life.
“We see this corrosive, poisoning virus of Jew-hatred increasingly infecting Canadian society, with Jews being the most targeted minority. ... I failed to hear a real, meaningful commitment from any of you today beyond platitudes and window dressing. I implore you to do more and to do it now. The safety and future of our Jewish community depend on it.”