Five biggest platforms fail to act on antisemitic posts

There has been a serious and systemic failure to tackle antisemitism across the five biggest social media platforms, resulting in a “safe space for racists”, according to a new report.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok failed to act on 84% of posts spreading anti-Jewish hatred and propaganda reported via the platforms’ complaints systems.

Researchers from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a UK/US non-profit, flagged hundreds of antisemitic posts over a six-week period this year. Although each of the 714 posts clearly violated the platforms’ policies, fewer than one in six were removed or had the associated accounts deleted after being pointed out to moderators.

The report found that the platforms are particularly poor at acting on antisemitic conspiracy theories, including tropes about “Jewish puppeteers”, the Rothschild family and George Soros, as well as misinformation connecting Jewish people to the coronavirus pandemic.

Holocaust denial was also often left unchecked.