Executive summaryFalse and misleading election narratives are surging on social media platforms in the lead up to the US presidential election. Since 2022, at least three major platforms have weakened their rules against disseminating election misinformation. Of these, X/Twitter also appears to have rolled back enforcement against hateful election misinformation.    Ahead of this election, a flood of narratives has surged rehashing antisemitic tropes and pushing anti-immigrant…

Executive Summary Platforms are still failing to take action on antisemitic hate reported through regular channels available to users. Researchers at the ADL Center for Technology and Society (CTS) tested how well five major platforms enforced their policies against hateful content in two areas: antisemitic conspiracy theories and the term “Zionist” used as a slur.    Most platforms only took action when ADL escalated the reports through direct channels, and even…

12 min read Executive Summary          Most tech companies have rules against hate and harassment. But until a new law in California was enacted in 2022, they had not been accountable to the American public for enforcing them. The law that could change all this, California AB 587, requires social media companies over a certain size to publish their terms of service, including key definitions of terms, and report regularly on how they are adhering to their policies…

18 min read Executive SummaryA group of moderators, who were struggling to cope with antisemitism in their communities on the social media platform Reddit, reached out to the ADL Center for Technology and Society (CTS) for support. Following engagement with Reddit—based on research into these moderators’ experiences—the platform took several important steps to support these moderators and stem instances of antisemitism on the site.  Some of these steps include:  …

ADL interviews content creators about their experiences with harassment in their comment sections and frustrations with the moderation tools available to them

ADL's 2024 survey shows online hate and harassment statistics for adults and teens, with data, analysis, and policy recommendations for tech companies and government.

Read Time: 54 mins Executive SummarySome Facebook groups in local communities have become toxic sites of harassment, particularly identity-based harassment against Jews, women, LGBTQ+ advocates, immigrants, and people of color.  ADL has investigated online hate and harassment occurring on Facebook groups or pages in three local regions through interviews with community members, targets, and regional directors, combined with online observation, content review, and quantitative data…

With recent ADL research showing that 15% of adults and 9% of young people have been exposed to white supremacist ideology while playing online games, ADL has examined three leading game companies’ policies to see how they prohibit content that promotes extremism and terrorism in their online multiplayer games. Despite widespread exposure to such content, game companies have generally been slower than social media companies to address this issue. ADL recommends that…

ADL Center for Tech and Society's 2023 Online Games Survey shows millions of gamers continue to experience harassment and hate while they play. 

Hate parties occur when links shared to fringe platforms lead users to YouTube comment sections to revel in hate, challenging content moderation strategies.

ADL’s research with the Tech Transparency Project shows that major social media platforms continue to algorithmically amplify and auto-generate hateful content.

To evaluate how people are protected from online, ADL reviewed how 9 tech companies support targets of hate and harassment on their platforms.

ADL's 2023 survey shows online hate and harassment rose for adults and teens, with data, analysis, and policy recommendations for tech companies and government.

Scorecard evaluating online social media and gaming platforms' policies and enforcement of removing holocaust denial content

The ADL Center for Technology and Society interviewed leading trust and safety practitioners in the games industry to understand efforts to address hate and harassment in the game industry.