A new report from CyberWell, a live database of online antisemitism, reveals wide disparities in the type of antisemitism social platforms see — and in how much they remove.
CyberWell data reveals that different antisemitic narratives dominate on different platforms, with violent content being particularly unevenly distributed.
Facebook users are most likely to see posts alleging that Jews control the world; Twitter users hear that Jews are obsessed with money; YouTube users are introduced to the conspiracy theory that Jews make up the mythical “Synagogue of Satan.”
All of these types of posts violate their respective platforms’ terms of service, yet rates of removal remain both low and uneven. Instagram removes a worst-in-class 13% of antisemitic content; YouTube tops the list at 31%. And while just over 2% of antisemitic content is violent, more than 90% of that content is found on Twitter.
“The fact that even the most vigilant social platform allows more than two-thirds of antisemitic posts to remain is more evidence that online antisemitism is not being taken seriously enough,” said CyberWell founder and CEO Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor. “Jewish social media users feel justifiably unsafe, and that won’t change until platforms prioritize enforcing their own terms of service.”
Language accounts for further disparities in narrative and enforcement. 19% of antisemitic posts in English allege that Jews are greedy, the top antisemitic trope in that language, but a full quarter of antisemitic posts in Arabic paint Jews as the enemy. And while Holocaust denial content is removed 36% of the time in English, that number plummets to 10% in Arabic.
These insights are part of CyberWell’s first annual report, which covers 2022. The world’s first live database of online antisemitism, CyberWell uses AI, open-source intelligence, and human expertise to find, report, and track antisemitic content across social media platforms. Antisemitic content is classified using the internationally recognized IHRA definition of antisemitism as well as the community guidelines it violates.
Lara Portnoy is the program and operations manager of CyberWell. A native of Overland Park, Kansas, Portnoy attended Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy through 8th grade and graduated from Blue Valley North High School. She made aliyah to Israel in 2016 and worked for almost a decade in non-profit development and fundraising, including five years at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, founded by the late Shimon Peres Z”L.
More information on CyberWell’s methodology and data is available at cyberwell.org.
