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Holocaust denial and distortion on social media

Holocaust denial and distortion on social media 49% of Holocaust-related content on Telegram denies or distorts the facts. This includes over 80% of posts in the German language, and approximately 50% of posts in English and French. These posts are often explicitly antisemitic, which is on the rise across the globe. They are easily accessible to people searching for information about the Holocaust on the platform. Telegram does not have a policy to take action on Holocaust denial or distortion, creating a safe haven for those who wish to deny or distort the genocide.

Definitions and Data

The term ‘Holocaust’ (or Shoah, meaning “catastrophe” in the Hebrew language) is used to refer to a specific genocidal event in twentieth-century history: the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and genocide of 6 million Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Alongside the murder of Jewish children, women and men, the Nazis systematically murdered Roma and Sinti. Millions more, including disabled persons, Poles, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents, suffered oppression and death under Nazi tyranny. The explosion and diversification of sources of misinformation on online platforms have led some to describe this as a “post-truth” era. It is in this context, when research into online platforms such as YouTube indicates a tendency to amplify messaging that is “divisive, sensationalist and conspiratorial”, that the rise and pernicious consequences of Holocaust denial and distortion can be observed. This has been fuelled by algorithms that corporations have created to prioritize advertising revenue and data collection over the provision of accurate, fact-checked information, in an environment where liberal democracies have been hesitant to create legislative oversight for fear of compromising the right to freedom of expression.

Actions against Holocaust denial and distortion online

The issue of Holocaust denial and distortion has long been a problem on social media and online platforms. While for many years online platforms took little action on the subject, recently some companies have begun attempts to limit the spread of such material on their platforms. There are some positive signs that the actions of online platforms to limit such discourse are having an impact. For example, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) found that “the spread of Holocaust denial content dropped significantly on YouTube following changes to their terms of service in 2019... [and] a number of factors limit the visibility of Holocaust denial on Reddit, such as the banning of subreddits dedicated to Holocaust denial, moderators deleting comments and pushback from other users”. Furthermore, recent campaigns to encourage online platforms to play a more responsible, responsive and active role in addressing Holocaust denial have led to Facebook and TikTok adopting new protocols. In January 2021, for example, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Jewish Congress announced a partnership with Facebook that would redirect Facebook users searching for Holocaust or Holocaust denial related terms in 12 languages to an authoritative website AboutHolocaust.org. The website, available in 19 languages, was accessed from more than 100 countries after the start of the partnership. Since 27 January 2022, TikTok users engaging with Holocaust-related content in the For You feed, search function and hashtag pages are presented with a message asking them to consult trusted sources on the Holocaust to limit the spread of hate and misinformation and directing them to the AboutHolocaust.org website where they can find authoritative information on the Holocaust. Despite these efforts, recent research has demonstrated that Holocaust denial and distortion remain present on social media and online platforms. In December 2021, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found several examples of Holocaust denial on Facebook, one year after the platform banned such content. In Latin America, Observatorio Web also reported an increase in Holocaust denial online over the course of 2020.16 All of this needs to be seen in the context of rising antisemitism online, which often goes unchecked.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) has defined Holocaust denial as: “any attempt to claim that the Holocaust/Shoah did not take place [and]… may include publicly denying or calling into doubt the use of principal mechanisms of destruction (such as gas chambers, mass shooting, starvation and torture) or the intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people”. The IHRA Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion:

Celebrating: Statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event. For example, the “Six Million Wasn’t Enough” slogan.

Blaming: Attempts to deflect responsibility and guilt for the Holocaust onto the Jews, by accusing them of causing their own genocide, arguing that they were actively complicit in the Holocaust (in order to use it to gain a national State), or that they somehow “deserved” or provoked their fate.

Delegitimizing: Distortion through depicting Israel as a Nazi State, equating Israeli policy towards the Palestinians with the gas chambers, death camps and mass murder used in the Holocaust.

Smearing: Distortion through claims that accuse Jews of exploiting or seeking to benefit from the Holocaust. This includes claims that the Holocaust is given more importance than it deserves; or that Jews talk too much about the Holocaust and use it to manipulate others.

Equating: Distortion by appropriating the emotional and rhetorical force of the Holocaust in the service of a political, social or moral agenda by equating the Holocaust to another event, without regard for the integrity of the historical past or the suffering of the Nazis’ victims.

Omitting: Intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the impact of the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany. This could include deflecting the guilt and responsibility for the Holocaust onto the Nazis and/or a “marginal fringe”, rather than acknowledge the participation, collaboration and complicity of one’s own nation. This includes distortions omitting aspects of the Holocaust that are too difficult to bear because they conflict with a strongly held sense of identity (often linked with national myths held by nationalistic, illiberal movements).

Narratives

What is at issue are misappropriations of the Holocaust that invoke its emotional power with little regard for the significance or historical integrity of the Holocaust itself. The calculus involved is to some extent subjective – what may seem a reasonable and legitimate comparison to one person can be highly offensive and inappropriate to another. However, as much as there can be a grey area, it is also clear that calling people Nazis simply because you disagree with them, or likening public health measures during a pandemic to persecution in Hitler’s Germany are so far from the reality of the Holocaust as to be no more than a rhetorical device, using and exploiting the memory of millions of dead in order to further an entirely unrelated political or moral agenda. As described below, comparisons between the Holocaust and contemporary COVID-19 public health measures were particularly prevalent. Outright Holocaust denial remains significant on social media and online platforms and comprised the second largest category: 4.3% of online content that referenced the Holocaust contained arguments that denied that it had taken place. The majority of this content featured on Telegram. Narratives smearing Jews by accusing them of exploiting the Holocaust were comparatively less present (2.2% of content reviewed). Narratives celebrating the Holocaust and delegitimizing Israel by equating it to a Nazi State were both present in 1.1% of the content reviewed. Narratives blaming Jews for the Holocaust, or suggesting outright Jewish complicity in the Holocaust, were the least common, at 0.8%.

Denial

Holocaust denial is illegal in several European countries and in Israel, whether covered by direct reference to Holocaust denial or as part of wider hate-speech laws. In the European Union, a 2008 Framework Decision on racism and xenophobia sought to align national legislation on Holocaust denial. Laws against Holocaust denial also exist in Israel and the Russian Federation. Some courts in the United States and the United Kingdom have taken judicial notice that the Holocaust occurred. In some contexts, national legislation may criminalize Holocaust denial while States propagate or encourages other forms of Holocaust distortion. Although such legislative means of tackling the phenomenon remain controversial (on the grounds of effectiveness and protecting free speech), the criminalization of Holocaust denial is a strong indication that it remains firmly outside acceptable mainstream discourse in many societies.

Conspiracies

A study conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2021 showed that content referencing narratives that deny the Holocaust made up 4.3 per cent of the total Holocaust-related material reviewed, and was largely discovered on Telegram. The denials identified could be broadly divided into two subtypes of conspiracy theory: Holocaust denial that attempts to discredit the established facts and historical evidence of the Holocaust, and posts that used Holocaust denial to provide evidence for other conspiracy theories. Holocaust denial has been circulating offline for several decades, initially promoted by figures such as Zundel, Faurisson and Irving, and which have been repeatedly tested and debunked in courts of law. This form of denial involves direct challenges to and refutation of some of the core facts about the Holocaust. Some Social media posts disseminated works by well-known Holocaust deniers and distorters. These individuals, such as David Irving, David McCalden, Ingrid Rimland, Roger Dommergue and Ursula Haverbeck, present themselves as legitimate historians and thus act as authority figures on which others can base their claims. Holocaust deniers are careful to present their arguments in ways that do not appear outwardly antisemitic or linked to neo-Nazi and other extremist forums, taking on the role of false experts by linking their social media posts to websites that present arguments with pseudo-academic, highly detailed arguments that are apparently well-sourced with copious footnotes. Those drawn to such sites and intrigued by their theories are not necessarily driven by antisemitism or extremist ideology, but may be attracted to Holocaust denial just as others are to fantastical conspiracy theories that claim the moon landings never happened, the earth is flat or that Australia does not exist. Their claims have been refuted by historians and experts, most famously by historian Deborah Lipstadt who won a legal trial in 2000 against Holocaust denier David Irving when he sued her for libel for calling him a Holocaust denier and rightwing extremist. Her book “Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory” is the first full length study on Holocaust denial. Another type of Holocaust denial exploits the conspiracy theory that the Holocaust was fabricated by a globalist cabal of elites who run the world to direct the audience to other conspiracy theories. Such conspiratorial rhetoric often connected Holocaust denial with conspiracies about COVID-19, suggesting that both had been fabricated. The association of Jews with disease and infection draws on a long history and on deep-rooted antisemitic tropes. The best known, and most dramatic example of this came in the late 1340s, when bubonic plague – the Black Death – swept through Europe, killing around 20 million people. This staggering death toll amounted to a third of the entire population of Western Europe. In many places, Jews were blamed for causing the plague by allegedly poisoning wells, and they were tortured, put on trial, executed or expelled. Thousands of Jews were murdered for this non-existent crime and hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed. Nazi propaganda regularly compared Jews to fleas, lice and other disease-bearing creatures, most notoriously in the film Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew), which depicted Jews as rats spreading their infection across Europe. This is the antisemitic legacy that is now echoed in this century by conspiracy theorists and Jew-haters across the internet. Proponents of the New World Order conspiracy theory falsely believe that an immensely powerful secret cabal manipulates world events as it seeks to seize control of the world and institute a single, totalitarian global government that will oppress and enslave the peoples of the world. The secret elite said to be at the centre of this plot are variously identified as Freemasons, the Illuminati or even a reptilian alien race. However, whichever group is said to be involved, a common underlying trope draws upon the antisemitic canard The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forged document purporting to document a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Lisa Rechelle (talk • contribs) 14:46, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

Lisa Rechelle (talk) 13:23, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

• Some of the word choice (eg "grievous oppression" and "Nazi tyranny") needs to be rephrased for WP:IMPARTIAL tone. (t · c) buidhe 14:42, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

  Thank you for the comment! I changed the expression "grievious oppression". However,I don't see how "Nazi tyranny" is an impartial expression when talking about the Holocaust.

Humour and Holocaust denial and distortion

While Holocaust denial, glorification and openly antisemitic material continues to circulate among violent extremist online communities, there has also been a recognition within the far-right movement that this openly racist, violent rhetoric and the use of Nazi symbology are deeply off-putting to many that the movement would like to recruit. Against this backdrop, there has been a strategic shift among far-right extremists, one that is important to understand as a different form of celebratory distortion of the past – that of mocking the Holocaust. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, far right movements have made a concerted effort to broaden their appeal and to make inroads into the mainstream. A new generation calling themselves the alt-right have abandoned the street violence and symbolism of the neo-Nazi skinhead movement to avoid the stigma attached to earlier generations, without abandoning their core beliefs. As they strategically integrated themselves into emerging online culture and communities, the internet became an important tool for recruitment and radicalization, as Maik Fielitz and Reem Ahmed have noted: “far-right extremists… learned the lesson that if — in our digitalised societies — a movement wants to be successful, it needs to be entertaining and participatory.”

Coded language

Perhaps the most important fact about communication of Holocaust denial and distortion online is its coded nature. Like most internet subcultures, communication of denial or distortion content makes use of a library of oblique references that are hard to understand or may appear completely innocuous to those without specialist knowledge. One example of this was to use references to the number six million, accompanied by photographs of animals, mosquitoes or other items that automatic image detection technology would be unlikely to flag as offensive. Such references were sometimes used as a subtle way of casting doubt on the claim that six million people had died in the Holocaust. It is possible that the choice of animal might also be a reference to antisemitic zoomorphic tropes. For example, the mosquito reference may be based on the idea that Jews are carriers of disease, “bloodsuckers” and parasites”. Such posts often play into the idea that the number of people who died in the Holocaust is wildly exaggerated. The aim of denying essential, clearly established facts about the Holocaust is relatively clear, but might nevertheless be missed by those who are not familiar with the symbology of Holocaust deniers. Such cultures are, of course, often strongly supportive of the idea that the Holocaust has either been exaggerated or made up entirely. Codes can also take the form of physical gestures such as Dieudonné M'bala M'balaonné’s “quenelle”, a hand gesture he invented to combine what looks like a Nazi salute pointing downwards with the left hand resting on the right shoulder. This gesture has been commonly reproduced by his supporters and is used to signal support for his ideas. The quenelle is over ten years old but can still be found today on online platforms as a way of indicating support for Dieudonné. Indeed, supporters may hunt for appearances of the gesture in popular media. Several coded images did not deny or distort the Holocaust but were nevertheless antisemitic. This included the “Blue the Jew” meme (identified by Savvas Zannettou). This meme encourages people to post pictures of famous people coloured in blue to identify them as Jews as a way of propagating the antisemitic canards of Jewish domination of media, politics and industry. Other posts were coloured in blue as a way of referencing this meme. Developments in content moderation may drive the evolution of coded terminology. Content containing well-known Holocaust denial terms (such as “Holohoax”) is now banned from many online platforms, for instance. Notably – during the course of the research – TikTok disabled users’ ability to post even with the hashtags “Holocaust” or “Auschwitz”. Hashtags are a central part of the way TikTok is organized: posts often contain hashtags, and people can view videos on a certain theme by clicking on a given hashtag. During the research, many words relating to Holocaust denial and distortion were not permitted as “valid” hashtags on TikTok: for example, 6MWE (six million wasn’t enough, a hashtag celebrating the Holocaust that was seen on the clothes of a member of the Capitol Hill rioters), is not a valid TikTok hashtag. Removing neutral terms such as Holocaust also limits people’s ability to search for educational content about the history. As a result, the research found that TikTok users posting material that discussed the Holocaust resorted to using the same types of misspelling and numerization of words that were previously the domain of those denying and distorting the Holocaust (for example, Holocoust, H0l0c4st and so forth). The removal of #Holocaust and #Auschwitz may make it harder to disseminate informative and research-based educational content about the Holocaust. Indeed, this type of unintended consequence of algorithmic content moderation has already been commented on in other studies. =

Memes

PA second communication aspect of Holocaust denial and distortion, closely related to the use of coded language, is the use of memes. Memes form part of internet culture that members of subcultures can use to show their allegiance and membership. Such repetition often involves creative modification, such that the meme itself quickly evolves and changes. Within alt-right Holocaust denial and distortion communities, generic memes from the wider internet can also be harnessed to make simple points in a visually arresting manner. The meme above depicts a man bowling, and has been widely used in a popular internet meme called “the bowler”, which is often used to convey humour about powerful arguments, refutations or important facts. Such memes are often called image macros, and employ images whose use is more or less fixed, overlaid with novel text. Here it is used to communicate an old denial theory that systematic killing of Jewish people could not have happened because the doors of the gas chambers at Auschwitz were made of wood, which – it is wrongly asserted – could not have contained the gas. In this case, a Holocaust denier is making use of a wider internet meme subculture to quickly and forcefully convey a point. Like the coded language described above, these memes are by no means an exhaustive sample of those circulating about the Holocaust, and will undoubtedly be quickly superseded. Rather, they are included to illustrate some key points. First, while Holocaust deniers and distorters have their own library of memes, they also make use of wider online trends to communicate and “mainstream” their ideas. Knowledge of these wider trends is therefore crucial for understanding the language they use to communicate. Second, it is important to recognize the visual power and transmissibility of memes, and how they engage people much more easily than long pieces of text. Antisemitic language can be mainstreamed through these memes without the audience necessarily knowing that they are antisemitic, which runs the risk of such ideas becoming normative. There is little understanding about how accurate information on the Holocaust can also be communicated in this way, through counter-messaging campaigns, for instance.

Signposting

Holocaust denial and distortion is also communicated through the ‘signposting’ of discussion venues and forums on different platforms. This was especially common in groups using coded language to signal Holocaust denial and distortion but not much outright or explicit content. The examples above are taken from Facebook. Such posts often followed a common pattern. Users would post relatively innocuous looking images or texts, but embedded within them would be links to other platforms. Many of these links seem to lead to Discord channels or Telegram channels. While this is not stated explicitly, the implication is that users will be able to speak more freely on these other platforms, with Telegram known for a relatively lax content moderation policy. Online platforms are being used simultaneously for different purposes, and are interconnected in use through the posting of URL links signposting to one another. As major platforms become increasingly regulated, it may be that more of this kind of content emerges, where the big platforms are used less to spread radical messages and more as a way to signpost people to other, more radical locations on the internet. Policy responses that focus solely on content removal are therefore likely to be ineffective. Instead, online platform companies need to work together and in partnership with researchers, civil society and international organizations to implement a range of strategies to try to marginalize groups that are disseminating hateful narratives and violent ideologies, depending on how they exploit specific platforms.

Lisa Rechelle (talk) 08:38, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

References

Effects of Holocaust denial and distortion

The Holocaust is still within living memory and its trauma continues to impact our world. It affects the self-identity and world view of the descendants of the victims and their communities, and also of people from the societies that committed these historic crimes. It is well-recognized in the field of transitional justice that truth-seeking can be healing, that an accounting for past crimes can lead to greater understanding and may help to resolve conflicts between peoples and communities. Denial and distortion of the Holocaust inhibit such productive memory-work. The Holocaust was first and foremost a disaster for its victims, and it remains a historic wound for the communities that were targeted. However, it was also a catastrophe for humanity as a whole: an expression of antisemitism and violence, enabled by an anti-democratic, totalitarian regime, its allies and collaborators. In countries across Europe, people became complicit in the murder of their neighbours. If humanity fails to remember, confront and learn from this traumatic past, then society will have an incomplete understanding of the deep flaws in the modern world, the social and economic relations, beliefs and value-systems and the weaknesses in political institutions that facilitated mass violence in Europe. The question is urgent and vital. Distortions of the Holocaust prevent society from reaching a full reckoning with this difficult past, a reckoning that could lead to greater understanding of the causes and warning signs of genocide, and that might help to strengthen efforts for genocide prevention.

Antisemitism

Antisemitism exists in all regions of the world, regardless of the presence of a Jewish population or a direct link to the history of the Holocaust. In 2016, a Holocaust cartoon competition in the Islamic Republic of Iran was sponsored by the Owj Media and Cultural Institute and the Sarsheshmeh Cultural Center, exhibiting over 15 cartoons that either denied or distorted the Holocaust, including through mocking and celebrating the genocide. The event followed a similar conference in 2006. Both events condemned by UNESCO, while former Secretary-General Kofi Annan responded in 2006 that, “any attempt to cast doubt on the reality of this unique and undeniable horror must be firmly resisted by all people of goodwill and of whatever faith”. Antisemitism can be spread through Holocaust denial and forms of Holocaust distortion. Accusations that the Holocaust is a hoax recirculate age-old antisemitic lies, myths and tropes that Jews are devious and untrustworthy people who manipulate the world through conspiracies. Some deniers claim that Jews invented the Holocaust to extort money from Germany and other countries through reparations, and to garner support for their claims to national statehood. It is used by some to legitimize neo-Nazism, white supremacy and the far right through an attempted rehabilitation of Hitler and the Nazis. Holocaust denial is also found in other violent extremist movements, among radical Islamists and on the far left, often as part of an anti-globalist, anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist discourse with antisemitic undercurrents that link Jews with global capitalism, buy into myths of Jewish conspiracies based on anti-Israelism (the idea that the State of Israel has no legitimacy) and in response to the conflict in the Middle East. Holocaust denial and distortion feed violent and extremist groups. These groups threaten everyone.

Justification and denial

Those who deliberately distort the Holocaust may not deny the mass murder of European Jews but are often motivated by animosity towards Jews that they share with deniers. Some seek to excuse or justify the Holocaust, blaming Jews for what happened to them, or to minimize these mass crimes by grossly underestimating the number of victims. Others willfully misrepresent historical records by omitting difficult parts of their own national history or by ignoring it altogether, downplaying the role of local perpetrators and collaborators in the Holocaust; inflating the number of helpers and rescuers; or glossing over the general population’s widespread complicity in the genocide. As with denial, antisemitism is often a key component in these forms of Holocaust distortion. Holocaust memory and remembrance may evoke guilt and can challenge strongly held national myths or political identities, which may deepen resentment towards Jews. Such manifestations once again often invoke antisemitic notions that Jews exaggerate or use the Holocaust for their own benefit.

References

Measuring Holocaust denial and distortion online

Content moderation policies on Holocaust denial or distortion

Facebook and Instagram: Users are told not to post content targeting a person or group of people on the basis of their aforementioned protected characteristic(s) or immigration status with designated dehumanizing comparisons, generalizations, or behavioural statements (in written or visual form) that include denying or distorting information about the Holocaust.

Telegram: “All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants”. Telegram does not process any requests related to them.

By signing up for Telegram, users agree not to:

·      Use the service to send spam or scam users.

·      Promote violence on publicly viewable Telegram channels, bots, etc.

·      Post illegal pornographic content on publicly viewable

Telegram “does not apply to local restrictions on freedom of speech”. Telegram “will not block anybody who peacefully expresses alternative opinions”.

Twitter: prohibits “targeting individuals or groups with content that references forms of violence or violent events where a protected category was the primary target or victims, where the intent is to harass. This includes, but is not limited to media or text that refers to or depicts genocides, (e.g., the Holocaust) or lynchings.”

In addition, Twitter considers “hateful imagery to be logos, symbols, or images whose purpose is to promote hostility and malice against others based on their race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or ethnicity/ national origin. Some examples of hateful imagery include, but are not limited to:

·      symbols historically associated with hate groups, e.g., the Nazi swastika;

·      images depicting others as less than human, or altered to include hateful symbols, e.g., altering images of individuals to include animalistic features; or

·      images altered to include hateful symbols or references to a mass murder that targeted a protected category, e.g., manipulating images of individuals to include yellow Star of David badges, in reference to the Holocaust. Media depicting hateful imagery is not permitted within live video, account bio, profile or header images. All other instances must be marked as sensitive media. Additionally, sending an individual unsolicited hateful imagery is a violation of our Twitter’s abusive behaviour policy”.

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Lisa Rechelle (talk) 08:29, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

References

Current initiative against Holocaust distortion and denial

The European Union Strategy of combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life

The European Union Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life is a response to rising levels of antisemitism in Europe and beyond. The Strategy sets out a series of measures articulated around three pillars: to prevent all forms of antisemitism; to protect and foster Jewish life; and to promote research, education and Holocaust remembrance. As part of the Strategy, the European Commission will:

• “Strengthen the fight against online antisemitism by supporting the establishment of a Europe-wide network of trusted flaggers and Jewish organizations, in line with the Code of conduct. It will also support the European Digital Media Observatory and its national hubs to increase the capacity of their fact-checkers on disinformation and will work with independent organizations to develop counter narratives, including in non-EU languages.”

• “Organize a hackathon to facilitate exchanges between experts to develop new innovative ways to address antisemitism in the online and digital environment.”

• “Cooperate with industry and IT companies to prevent the illegal display and sale of Nazi-related symbols, memorabilia and literature online.”

• “Conduct comprehensive data analysis to better understand the spread of antisemitism online, how it travels and expands.

• “Address antisemitic hate speech in the upcoming updated Better internet for kids strategy.”

Global Task Force Against Holocaust Distortion

In 2020, the German Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance launched the Global Task Force Against Holocaust Distortion. Through advocacy and awareness-raising, it unites international policy-makers and leading experts from Holocaust-related institutions and organizations against the increasingly dangerous influences of Holocaust distortion, antisemitism, hate speech and incitement to violence and hatred.

Institute of Strategic Dialogue

The European Commission funded a research study on the rise of antisemitism online during the pandemic, a study of French and German language content. This report, conducted by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), presents a data-driven snapshot of the proliferation of COVID-19 related online antisemitic content in French and German on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram. The study provides insight into the nature and volume of antisemitic content across selected accounts in France and Germany, including content that denies or distorts the Holocaust, analysing the platforms where such content is found, as well as the most prominent antisemitic narratives – comparing key similarities and differences between these different language contexts.

Observatorio Web

Observatorio Web is the first organization to focus on online hate in Latin America. Observatorio Web’s innovative approach brings together all types of minority groups to fight against online discrimination and educate teachers and students about the responsible use of technologies. It monitors content that incites hatred and discrimination based on religion, nationality, ideology, political opinion, sexual orientation, social status or physical characteristics, including Holocaust denial and distortion and antisemitism. Observatorio Web works with government authorities, internet companies and civil society organizations to develop educational materials to foster digital citizenship in response to the findings of its research reports. It is a joint programme of the Latin American Jewish Congress (LAJC) and the Argentine Jewish community (AMIA and DAIA).

Amadeu Antionio Foundation, Expo Foundation and HOPE not Hate

A collaborative report between the Amadeu Antonio Foundation in Germany, Expo Foundation in Sweden and HOPE not Hate in the United Kingdom, which is funded by Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org, explores the state of antisemitism online in Europe. The report investigates online antisemitism through the study of the questions: how is antisemitism being affected by the internet and how do different online spaces affect the nature of the antisemitism found within them? The report explores antisemitism, including Holocaust denial and distortion, across nine social media platforms or websites. These include mainstream platforms like Facebook and YouTube, as well as alternative platforms like Parler and 4chan’s /pol/ board, which are regularly used to spread violent extremist ideologies. The report investigates the moderation policies, algorithms and terms of services of different online spaces affect the nature of the antisemitism hosted on each platforms.

Twitter and TikTok

Twitter has increased the amount of information it makes available in its Transparency Center to include information requests, removal requests, potential copyright and trademark infringements, its rules governing enforcement and information on State-backed information operations and attempts to manipulate the platform.

ThinkBeforeSharing social media campaign

Twitter partnered with UNESCO, the European Commission and the World Jewish Congress on the #ThinkBeforeSharing social media campaign to help people to identify, debunk, react to and report on conspiracy theories to prevent their spread. Through a series of infographics and a social media pack, the campaign raised awareness about the importance of thinking critically and being informed about conspiracy theories, including those informed by antisemitism.

AboutHolocaust.org

Hosted by the World Jewish Congress and UNESCO, AboutHolocaust.org counters the rise of Holocaust denial and distortion by providing simple answers to questions such as “What was the Holocaust?”, “How did the Nazis exploit their Jewish victims?” and “Were Jews the only victims of Nazi persecution?”. Since 27 January 2021, Facebook redirects its users searching for terms associated with the Holocaust, denial or distortion to the website. These lessons are relevant for people in every country and context, making Facebook’s expansion into 12 of the 19 languages available on AboutHolocaust.org all the

more significant. From 27 January 2022, TikTok users searching for terms related to the Holocaust, such as “Holocaust victims” or “Holocaust survivor”, see a banner at the top of their search results which invites them to visit the website. Users searching for terms related to the Holocaust which violate TikTok’s Community Guidelines, are informed their search results are restricted, and will be shown the same banner inviting them to visit AboutHolocaust.org.

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[1] The European Union Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/ detail/en/ip_21_4990.

Lisa Rechelle (talk) 10:59, 5 May 2023 (UTC)

References