Social media platforms failing to moderate online hate

As the world enters its second year since the murderous Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, the oldest hatred is alive and well in cyberspace. A new scorecard by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) shows that social media platforms consistently fail to moderate and remove antisemitic conspiracy theories and posts using “Zionist” as a slur.

The ADL’s Center for Technology and Society evaluated both policy and enforcement around antisemitism from five online providers. The worst culprit is X (formerly Twitter), which scored an “F” and didn’t remove hateful content; Facebook and TikTok were each awarded a “C”; YouTube and Instagram received a “C-minus”. The SA Jewish Report spoke to South African antisemitism experts about these findings.

Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL chief executive and national director, said, “In the aftermath of the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, Jewish users are encountering more antisemitic slurs and harassment on social media than ever before. It’s not hard to detect this hate, but it takes leadership to enforce the rules consistently.”

The United States-based ADL found that while all the platforms, bar X, had anti-hate policies, they were poorly enforced when it came to antisemitism. The study revealed that most platforms took some action only when the ADL escalated the reports through direct channels as “trusted flaggers”, a recourse unavailable to ordinary users. Even then, actions by the social media firms were uneven and disappointing.

Milton Shain, emeritus professor of historical studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT), said, “It doesn’t come as a surprise to read a study that confirms the dramatic explosion of Jew hatred on social platforms. Sometimes this hatred lives below the radar; at other times it emerges. Ideal breathing space was given on 7 October. Zionism as an ideology has been mangled over decades, and Israel’s delegitimisation orchestrated with great effect. Needless to say, its oxygen is Jew hatred. Anti-Zionism is now a hygienic form of antisemitism. More disturbing, however, is the poor management of hate on social platforms. These have become a boon for haters of all stripes. Something needs to be done. The ADL is suggesting the way forward. It’s to be commended.” Shain’s latest book, Fascists, Fabricators and Fantasists: Antisemitism in South Africa from 1948 to the Present, was published by Jacana Media in 2023.

“The ADL’s findings accord with our own experience,” said Adam Mendelsohn, a professor at UCT and the director of the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies. “The approach that different platforms take to content moderation is opaque, and the quality of moderation is patchy at best. Even when reported, platforms are often slow or reluctant to respond, and then show poor judgement in determining what’s unacceptable. Unfortunately, social media platforms profit from heated discussion and controversy among their users – this drives traffic – and are reluctant to invest adequately in tackling hate speech.”

Professor Karen Milner, the chairperson of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), concurs. “Antisemitic tropes, misinformation, and outright lies are nothing new when it comes to Jew hatred,” she said. “Going back to blood libels and the bogus Protocols of the Elders of Zion, such lies have been manufactured and used against Jews for hundreds of years. We would expect better of technology companies in the 21st century, however. Social media companies have an obligation to ensure that they aren’t a platform for blatant lies and hate speech. I commend the ADL for doing this work.

“The communications revolution resulting from the social media phenomenon has also provided unprecedented opportunities for bigots to disseminate hateful content with minimal effort and at no cost to a global audience,” Milner said. “Antisemites of every stripe are thriving in this environment, using the wide variety of platforms available to revile, defame, and often incite actual harm against Jews without hinderance and with complete impunity. Although the various social media platforms at least theoretically have in place codes of conduct to prevent this kind of abuse, in the experience of the SAJBD, these rules are in practice infrequently and inconsistently enforced, allowing much or even most of the offending content to appear uncensored. Moreover, even when formal complaints are submitted, in practice either nothing is done or when action is taken, it’s only after lengthy delays.

“What’s further making it all but impossible to effectively address online antisemitism is the fact that the abusers of these platforms are able to operate with complete anonymity, which the companies concerned steadfastly refuse to betray even in cases involving incitement to antisemitic violence. Added to that is the ease with which users can simply create new profiles in those rare cases where their original accounts have been closed. Ultimately, if the social media platforms concerned are truly serious about curbing online hatred, their modus operandi needs a serious overhaul.”

Tali Nates, the director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) said, “After a few years of research, at the end of 2022, the JHGC together with KAS [Konrad Adenauer Stiftung] Media Africa and the Kaplan Centre at UCT, published important research on the ‘Dynamics of Racism, Antisemitism and Xenophobia on Social Media in South Africa’, available on the JHGC website. Continued research is being conducted on antisemitism post-7 October. As an education institute, it’s of great importance to translate the data into actual educational programmes for learners and educators. Together with other partners, we’re developing a toolkit for teachers to be able to sensitise the youth to heighten their awareness to hate speech and disinformation. Such education is even more essential now than before.”

Recommendations for the platforms by the ADL included improving user reporting, fixing the gap between policy and enforcement, reviewing reported content in context, and following emerging trends and adversarial shifts over time.

Users of any social media that find content to be objectionable must use the online reporting channels at their disposal. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Expose the lies, and pressure the platforms to remove them.