New York, NY, December 3, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) CEO and National Director Jonathan A. Greenblatt issued the following statement regarding reports that Facebook is "overhauling" its algorithms that detect hate speech:
For years, ADL has advocated that Facebook pay specific attention to rampant hate and extremism on its platform, including antisemitism, racism, xenophobia and all forms of extremism. For too long, the persistent presence of bigotry and conspiracy…
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November 24, 2020 By Vegas Tenold, Investigative Researcher, ADL Center on Extremism
President Trump’s loss to President-elect Joe Biden in the 2020 U.S. presidential election has presented the QAnon movement with a conundrum -- and a test of its ability to survive in the face of total cognitive dissonance.
For many QAnon believers, who subscribed to a movement founded on the notion of President Trump’s utter infallibility, the idea of an electoral loss was simply…
November 24, 2020 UPDATE:
In July 2021, during a investigative radio show and podcast, Alex Mann, an Australian journalist for ABC’s Background Briefing, identified CatboyKami (aka Philip Hedley) as Tor Gustafsson Brookes.
Extremists are constantly adapting and finding ways to reach new audiences, spread and spew their hate and create online content. Their latest tactic involves the use of Omegle, a free online chat service that randomly pairs anonymous users for…
November 20, 2020 By David Andrew Weinberg
The Yemeni Embassy in Washington recently released a report featuring primary source documents on the core ideology of the Houthi insurgents who seized Yemen’s capital in 2014. That report, authored by Embassy official Salem Baafi, makes a case that antisemitism and other forms of hate form an essential part of the worldview and motivation of Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
The Houthis’ oft-invoked slogan is itself antisemitic…
New York, NY, November 18, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today called on the Trump Administration to immediately rescind the appointment of Darren Beattie as a member of the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, an independent agency of the U.S. government established in 1985 to identify and report on cemeteries, monuments and historic buildings in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Holocaust killing sites. Beattie once attended a meeting with…
November 17, 2020 Facebook has been vocal about its recent efforts to suspend and ban hateful, conspiratorial and violent content from its platform. And yet a great deal of extremist content remains.
As of November 16, 2020, even a cursory search of Facebook brings up white supremacist, racist and antisemitic pages. The following is a sampling of extremist groups and individuals currently active on Facebook.
Antisemites and Holocaust Deniers:
TruNews is a fundamentalist…
November 15, 2020 Thousands gathered in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, November 14, 2020 for the so-called Million MAGA March. Attendees and speakers, including a number of extremists, expressed support for President Trump, who continue to insist, without evidence, that he won re-election nearly two weeks ago.
The rally was loosely organized, and speeches, some of which were impromptu, took place in both Freedom Plaza as well as in front of the Supreme Court. While the main rally was mostly…
November 13, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
U.S. Jewish groups, including ADL, and foreign leaders are congratulating President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their election win. New research from ADL’s Center on Extremism indicates that some extremists are planning to show up at this weekend’s “Million MAGA March” in D.C. A New York City man was arrested Tuesday and is facing federal charges after he allegedly made death threats against…
November 12, 2020 Federal agents with New York’s Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Brian Maiorana, 54, of Staten Island on November 10, 2020, charging him with making threatening interstate communications. According to the criminal complaint, Maiorana recently used social media accounts to threaten violence against Democratic politicians, law enforcement officers and social justice protestors.
While Maiorana does not appear to have fully committed to an extremist ideology, and many…
November 12, 2020 The social media site Parler, which has become increasingly popular among conservatives, has also attracted a range of extremists. In recent weeks, the site has drawn millions of new users frustrated with what they perceive to be “anti-conservative” bias exhibited by mainstream social media platforms.
While the site itself is not extremist, extremists have joined Parler in large numbers alongside millions of mainstream users, creating the potential for…
November 12, 2020 In the weeks leading up to and after the 2020 presidential election, the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Center on Extremism (COE) in conjunction with ADL’s Center for Technology and Society has been releasing a series of news briefs on topics of concern regarding the role extremists and extremism more broadly are playing in our current political environment.
Here's Part 7:
Extremists Plan to Attend “Million MAGA March” in Washington, D.C.
Who/What:…
November 09, 2020 The 2020 Election has thrown America’s divisions into sharp relief. Beneath the distrust and anger, pervasive disinformation campaigns are poisoning our body politic.
Researchers at ADL’s Center on Extremism have examined a number of these campaigns, exposing the falsehoods, twisted truths and outright lies.
Disinformation: Claims that the NAACP issued a warning about upcoming white supremacist actions that would put Black men and boys at risk…
Remarks by Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO November 09, 2020
Thank you all for tuning in today for the 5th annual Never is Now conference.
There is so much to discuss, but before we get started, I want to pause and remember Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks who left us too soon this weekend. He was an extraordinary leader, a remarkable rabbi, a gifted scholar and a beautiful man. He will be missed. May his memory always be for a blessing.
We gather today -- virtually -- at what feels…
November 08, 2020 On Saturday, November 7, 2020, all major media outlets called the presidential election for now President-elect Joe Biden. Right-wing extremists reacted to the news as expected -- with anger, distrust and nebulous, non-specific threats of violence.
The Proud Boys appear to be primarily focused on disseminating and elevating unfounded rumors of election fraud. Some members posted vague threats of violence. Leader Enrique Tarrio wrote on his Parler feed, “We’re…
November 06, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
As the country waited anxiously for all the votes to be counted in the U.S. presidential election, ADL urged calm and patience and reiterated our longstanding calls that every vote counts and every vote must be counted. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican candidate from Georgia who has espoused the antisemitic QAnon conspiracy theory and employed racist rhetoric during her congressional campaign was elected to the House of Representatives. And ADL…
November 06, 2020 On November 5, 2020, Philadelphia police arrested two men from Virginia, thwarting a possible attack targeting people counting votes from Tuesday’s election at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Antonio LaMotta, 61, and Joshua Macias, 42, were arrested after police received a tip that the men were traveling to Philadelphia to allegedly engage in unspecified criminal activity. Police arrested the two men as they approached officers who were investigating their…
November 06, 2020 Less than 24 hours ago, the country heard President Trump speak from the White House and make wild accusations of massive voter fraud that appear to be entirely out of line with the facts. He repeated baseless conspiracy theories and called for action. There literally is no precedent for a sitting president to denigrate our democracy and to undermine the integrity of our electoral processes in this manner. But in light of the tension across the country and the demonstrated…
November 05, 2020 A subset of high-profile, misinformation-laden posts reached a combined potential audience of more than 108M followers, with over 1.1M likes and retweets prior to ADL reporting them to Twitter on November 4, 2020. From the time ADL reported the tweets to Twitter on November 4 until our final check on November 9, we found that the misleading tweets that remained unaddressed by the social media platform had been liked or retweeted more than 297,000 additional times. Tweets…
As the final votes are tallied, we reiterate our longstanding calls that every vote counts and every vote must be counted. New York, NY, November 4, 2020 ... Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), today issued the following statement on the undetermined outcome of the United States presidential election:
We have just witnessed one of the most consequential presidential election contests in the history of our nation. The turnout exceeded expectations across the…
October 30, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3
Two years after a white supremacist gunned down 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, ADL reflects on the memories of those lost and what we as a nation can do to prevent another tragedy like this. The U.K. Labour Party has suspended its former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, after a watchdog report found that the party failed to properly take action against allegations of antisemitism during his time in charge. The FBI arrested a member…