The world has changed and it’s not all good
BIRTHDAYS HAVE taken on a whole new dimension since the advent of social media. Before I joined Facebook, I was grateful if anyone remembered mine; since I joined, I get messages from friends all over the world, including, last year, from several people I haven’t seen for more than 30 years. That said, upon closer statistical analysis, it turns out that only 7.96 percent of my Facebook friends bothered to send me a birthday greeting last year — a ratio of about one in twelve or thirteen — which either says something about me, them, or all of us, although I’m not really sure what. But whatever it is, I’m looking to break the ten percent barrier this year.
I bring it up because it is becoming increasingly apparent that social media is dramatically changing our world. It does so in many wonderful ways— birthday greetings being just one obvious example among many. But there is another, much darker side.
A study we conducted last year about antisemitism in Europe included a question about the contexts in which Jews most commonly experience antisemitism, and where they find it to be most problematic. Several possibilities were offered: in the media, politics, on the street, at sports events, cultural events, in universities, graffiti on Jewish buildings, desecration of Jewish cemeteries, etc.
All of these registered in some way. But one environment stood out, not just in the UK, but in every single country investigated. A stag- Social media has changed the nature of discourse gering 80 percent of Jews across Europe said they had seen non-Jewish people make comments online over the previous year that they considered to be antisemitic. No other context came even close.
I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that levels of antisemitism — or perhaps levels of our collective anxiety about antisemitism — have risen since the advent of social media. The two have happened more or less simultaneously.
CST antisemitic incident data on the issue appear to be instructive. Whilst one should always read those data carefully when trying to discern trends over time, it’s striking to see that whereas just 12 of the incidents recorded in 2011 involved the use of social media, 384 did in 2018, a proportionate rise from two percent to 23 percent of the totals in just seven years.
Social media has changed the nature of discourse. It allows us to interact with people without normal social filters. We engage with people we don’t know, often going straight for the jugular on all sorts of social and political issues. We misunderstand and misinterpret, because we only see people’s written words – often with inaccurate grammar and WRITTEN IN CAPS — rather than their eyes or their hearts. We speak and listen in ways that we wouldn’t do face-to-face, so we cause hurt and we get hurt.
But, in thinking about antisemitism, I am also struck by a 2017 Pew Research Center finding that eight percent of American adults, irrespective of their religious background, have experienced online harassment because of their race or ethnicity, and 14 percent for their political views. Both figures are remarkably similar to the proportions of European Jews we found to have experienced online antisemitic harassment: 10 percent over the past twelve months; 13 percent over the past five years. It seems that online antisemitic harassment is not uniquely bad; it’s largely in line with online racist or political harassment of all kinds.
The social media companies are well aware of the challenges and have taken some steps to remedy them. Facebook, for example, has 30,000 employees working on safety and security worldwide. But many of the largest social media companies are American, and their default position is almost always to vigorously defend their First Amendment rights, even though Pew data show that American adults, and particularly American women, believe it is more important to feel welcome and safe online than to be able to speak their minds freely.
That philosophical debate about freedom of speech lies behind much policy debate about antisemitism today. It needs to be resolved if antisemitism, and other forms of online harassment, are to be curbed.
That is not to detract from the haters themselves — they are ultimately responsible for their bile. But social media companies are handing them a megaphone, and they’re not using it to wish anyone happy birthday. It’s time for Facebook, Twitter, et al to step up, or for government to step in.
Jonathan Boyd is executive director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR)