A new report sheds light on the failure of major social media platforms to remove more than 80% of anti-Semitic posts.
According to a large-scale study conducted by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), nearly nine out of ten anti-Semitic posts remain online despite being flagged
Despite promising to crack down on antisemitic hate, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok did not act on these posts, even though they were reported through the existing tools for disclosing malicious content.
CCDH hailed Facebook the worst performer, with 89%of posts going unanswered.
The organization accused many internet behemoths of being "safe places to spread racism and propaganda against Jews" in its report, titled "Failure to Act."
The CCDH looked at 714 anti-Jewish posts published between May and June on five different sites. According to the data, they garnered a total of 7.3 million views.
It listed Holocaust denial as one among them, as well as conspiracy theories claiming Jews "control" governments and banks or orchestrate world events, according to the report.
CCDH revealed that TikTok especially fails to remove accounts that explicitly harass Jewish users; the platform only eliminates 5% of accounts that send direct messages regarding Holocaust denial, according to the report.
And the hate speech flows over the internet, and it doesn't just remain there. Several studies have found a correlation between racist speech on social media platforms and hate crimes in the area. Anti-refugee Facebook posts, for example, have been linked to violent attacks on refugees in Germany.
Financial penalties, as well as improved training and support, are suggested in the report to encourage better moderation. Platforms should also ban accounts that send racist abuse directly to users and remove anti-Semitic groups.
The research showed that online abuse was not caused by algorithms or automation, as tech companies allowed "bigots to keep their accounts open and their hate to remain online" even after human moderators were alerted, according to Imran Ahmed, CEO of the CCDH.
The social media companies defended their records largely, citing examples of progress made on the issue.
TikTok stated that it "condemns anti-Semitism and hate speech."
"Our work is never done," said Facebook, which owns Instagram.
In recent years, YouTube, according to a representative, has developed a rigorous hate speech policy and made tremendous progress in our capacity to promptly remove harmful content. It asserted that in the first three months of the year, it had deleted 85,000 videos.
Meanwhile, Twitter emphasized that it "strongly condemns" anti-Semitism.
