August 07, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Twenty state attorneys general called on Facebook to better prevent messages of hate, bias and disinformation from spreading, and said the company needed to provide more help to users facing online abuse. The leader of a white supremacist group was arrested in Weatherford, Texas on Saturday after police said he and two other men placed stickers on county property. And the global Jewish community continues to face rising antisemitism due to the…

July 31, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 As #StopHateForProfit July advertising pause is drawing to a close, many major companies remain unsatisfied with Facebook’s response to hate speech and misinformation on the platform, and some are vowing to continue the ad pause indefinitely. Minneapolis police identified a white supremacist whom they believe helped initiate the riots and destruction in the city following the killing of George Floyd. Jewish leaders expressed outrage over an…

July 15, 2020 Antisemitism has stained the speeches and statements of Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan for decades. This past July 4 was no different, as Farrakhan delivered an address replete with antisemitic lies and stereotypes, and calls for his listeners to speak out against Jews. His speech reverberated in the ensuing days among celebrities and garnered over a million views on social media. Louis Farrakhan may be the most popular antisemite in America, as his messages…

July 10, 2020 Image source: https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2020/07/07/day-of-rage-demands-no-annexation-of-palestinian-land/ Anti-Israel groups have held at least thirty-five rallies in cities across the U.S. since July 1, 2020, ostensibly to express their opposition to the potential annexation by the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of parts of the West Bank, which had been expected to be announced as early as July 1. Although many of the protestors limited their…

July 10, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Civil rights leaders came out of a meeting Tuesday with Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg saying they didn’t make progress on #StopHateforProfit’s demands over how the social media giant polices the platform for hate and misinformation. Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson apologized for a series of antisemitic Instagram posts, one of which included a quote about Jews falsely attributed to Adolf Hitler. A county chairman in…

June 22, 2020 For nearly two decades, rock music icon Roger Waters has been one of the most prominent and outspoken supporters of the BDS movement. He has refused to perform in Israel and urged fellow artists to follow suit, and has often used inflammatory rhetoric against the country. ADL has repeatedly called out Waters for his hateful rhetoric, dating back to an open 2013 letter suggesting that his anti-Israel views may be colored by antisemitism.     In a recent…

June 22, 2020 Facebook has been claiming that it is effectively addressing hate on its platforms. ADL and others, however, have continued to expose egregious examples of online hate, misinformation and extremism across the company’s products, particularly on Facebook and Instagram. Whether or not these posts technically violate Facebook’s complicated guidelines around hate speech, as a result of the platform’s casual placement of ads, paid advertisements run a risk of being…

June 16, 2020 On June 15, 2020, a federal grand jury indicted Matthew Patrick Slatzer of Canton, Ohio, on weapons charges. Slatzer, a known neo-Nazi, was arrested in February after bringing a gun into a Canton bar, and was charged with possession of a firearm by a person with a domestic violence conviction. The investigation began after Slatzer -- who, according to police reports, was wearing a sword and hatchet on his belt -- entered a business in Stow, Ohio, on May 3, 2020. He allegedly…

June 08, 2020 In the midst of ongoing, nationwide protests in response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, an internet rumor has circulated accusing Black Lives Matter of distributing antisemitic fliers. The flier reads, “Ending white privilege…intersects [sic] ending Jewish privilege,” and claims that Jewish Americans receive special privileges at leading universities. “Challenging White Privilege and Jewish Privilege is not anti-semitic…

June 03, 2020 A medida que continúan las protestas — en gran parte pacíficas, pero cada vez más marcadas por enfrentamientos violentos, saqueos y vandalismo — en respuesta al asesinato de George Floyd por la policía en Minneapolis, los expertos de derecha y un grupo ideológicamente diverso de teóricos de la conspiración han afirmado que George Soros ha fomentado el caos. El lenguaje agresivo contra Soros se ha disparado en los…

June 02, 2020 As protests – still largely peaceful, but increasingly marked by violent confrontations, looting and vandalism -- continue in response to the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, right-wing pundits and an ideologically diverse crew of conspiracy theorists have alleged that George Soros has played a role in fomenting the chaos. Aggressive language towards Soros has exploded on social media sites like Twitter, where a sample assessment showed that negative…

June 01, 2020 American cities are reeling after another night of clashes between protesters and law enforcement. Since Thursday, daily, peaceful demonstrations against police brutality, spurred in part by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, have descended into overnight eruptions of violence and destruction. In some cases, peaceful protests have been met with excessive police force. There have also been widespread incidents of violence and property destruction. And…

May 22, 2020 On May 1, 2020, when boogaloo activists organized a protest against coronavirus public safety measures in Raleigh, North Carolina, many attendees carried firearms in defiance of state laws prohibiting guns at public demonstrations. It was a scene played out across the country in recent weeks, as boogalooers are energized by resistance to lockdown restrictions, which they view as tyrannical government overreach. Boogaloo adherents have shown up at numerous lockdown protests, waving…