Press Release | New Report Reveals Disparities in Social Platforms’ Removal of Antisemitism

A groundbreaking new report reveals wide disparities in the type of online antisemitism social platforms see — and in how much they remove. CyberWell’s 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 slanders 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 3% 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.

For more information on CyberWell’s methodology and data, please visit https://cyberwell.org/.

About CyberWell

CyberWell is the world’s first live database of online antisemitism, using cutting-edge technology to collect digital hate so it can be studied and stopped. CyberWell’s platform is designed to drive the enforcement and improvement of community standards and hate speech policies across the digital space.