ADL Articles

July 01, 2021 On January 6, 2021, a violent mob of right-wing extremists stormed our nation’s Capitol. Approximately 22 percent of the 500 people facing charges related to the insurrection had ties to extremist groups and movements including white supremacists, anti-government extremists, Proud Boys and QAnon conspiracy theorists. We know that some elements of the insurrection were pre-planned online, and more alarming facts have come to light as insurrections have been arrested and…

June 30, 2021 This blog post is the second in a series of three articles that will explore the unique challenges audio content moderation poses for platforms creating audio-focused digital spaces. The first article in this series focused on the choices around recording audio for the purpose of content moderation in audio only digital social spaces. This article will discuss how platforms can choose to review audio for content moderation. The third article will cover cautionary tales from…

June 28, 2021 Ozone Wallace during a March 2021 YouTube podcast with the New Black Panther Party (NBPP)   ADL’s Center on Extremism has linked Othal Toreyanne Resheen Wallace (also known as: O-Zone Wallace), the man arrested and accused of fatally shooting Daytona Beach Officer Jason Raynor on June 23, to several extremist groups. On June 26, following a 56-hour manhunt, multiple law enforcement agencies were involved in the arrest of Wallace just outside of Atlanta,…

June 24, 2021 The cover image of Al Qaeda's article, "What is Behind the Normalization with Israel, the Mysteries of the Term and ِthe Dangers of its Machinations," shows a figure bearing the flags of Israel, the European Union, and the United States giving orders to bodies of news organizations, social media, finance, the United Nations, Hollywood and government. The notion that Israel and the West secretly control international organizations and the news media is a common antisemitic…

June 22, 2021   By David Andrew Weinberg ADL recently completed a review of current Egyptian elementary, middle, and high school textbooks as part of a series of articles examining the state of antisemitic content in state-published Middle East curricula.  Although Egypt’s latest textbooks do contain some positive material about Jewish people, that content is directly contradicted by other, much more problematic lessons in the curriculum. Egypt is the Arab state with…

June 21, 2021 In June 2020, Facebook announced that it had taken down hundreds of groups and pages on its platform associated with the violent anti-government boogaloo movement, one of several major purges of extremist material by Facebook that year to address extremists’ use of its platform. Despite efforts by the boogaloo movement to camouflage itself to retain a Facebook  foothold, the social media company’s efforts were largely effective, and after the deplatforming, it…

June 15, 2021 Over the past two years, federal courts nationwide have encountered a rash of cases in which plaintiffs go to court to ask that suspicious arbitration awards be “confirmed” against the party that they claim owes the putative damages. These cases are related to a new tactic used by the sovereign citizen movement, the longstanding anti-government extremist movement whose adherents don’t believe in the legitimacy or authority of the U.S. government. This new tactic…

June 11, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3   Antisemitic incidents more than doubled in May compared to last year following Mideast violence, according to new data from ADL. Online antisemitism grew significantly during the pandemic, with COVID-19 ushering in “a new wave of antisemitic conspiracy theories and hate in Europe,” the European Commission said in a report issued last week. Four members of the same family were killed in a pickup truck attack in London, Ontario in what…

June 10, 2021 By David Andrew Weinberg In the last year, peace accords between Israel and four Arab states fueled predictions that several other Mideast governments might soon make amends with the Jewish state.  Saudi Arabia, Mauritania, Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar were all identified as possible next candidates for peace with Israel.  Reports also suggested that Turkey and Egypt, which recognize Israel but avoid fully normalized relations, might face new pressures to shift from cold…

June 09, 2021 In the past month, the American Jewish community has been under increased threat of violence and harassment. Early data from ADL suggests antisemitic incidents have increased significantly, both online and offline, after the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians returned to the national spotlight. We wanted to follow up on the survey we conducted earlier this year of Jewish Americans to learn about their experiences with antisemitism, online and off, to help…

June 09, 2021 Un nuevo análisis del Centro sobre Extremismo de la ADL revela que los incidentes antisemitas en Estados Unidos aumentaron a más del doble durante el conflicto militar de mayo de 2021 entre Israel y Hamás y sus consecuencias inmediatas, en comparación con el mismo período de tiempo en 2020.  Después de alcanzar un punto máximo entre el 20 y el 22 de mayo de 2021, el nivel de incidentes ha retornado gradualmente al nivel de…

June 08, 2021 Just as Jewish individuals and institutions have been targeted with antisemitism during the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas in many European cities, antisemitic incidents have also occurred in European soccer stadiums and antisemitic vitriol has reached unprecedented levels online. Antisemitism has always been present in European soccer. Fans have written antisemitic, racist, neo-Nazi slogans on banners, sung them in songs, and shouted them during physical attacks on…

June 07, 2021 New analysis from ADL’s Center on Extremism reveals that antisemitic incidents in the U.S. more than doubled during the May 2021 military conflict between Israel and Hamas and its immediate aftermath compared to the same time period in 2020.  After peaking between May 20-22, 2021, incident levels have gradually returned to a baseline level. These numbers should still be considered preliminary and are likely to change as additional information becomes available. …

June 07, 2021 En toda Europa, las protestas contra las restricciones del COVID-19 y las campañas públicas que promocionan las vacunas contra el virus han incluido símbolos e imágenes del Holocausto, entre ellas la estrella amarilla. La utilización de este tipo de imaginería del Holocausto compara erróneamente el régimen nazi antisemita, racista, misógino, xenófobo y homófobo, y sus actos genocidas, con las…

June 02, 2021 Telegram image that appears to be Blevins wearing a swastika armband and T-shirt with seal of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps On May 28, 2021, Texas authorities arrested Coleman Thomas Blevins of Kerrville after he allegedly threatened to carry out a mass shooting at an area Walmart. Blevins was charged with making a terroristic threat to create public fear of serious bodily injury. He appears to embrace a convoluted extremist ideology that includes elements of white…

June 02, 2021 On May 25, 2021, the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, bigots and trolls took to Twitter to make celebratory, vicious posts tarnishing his memory, while white supremacists marked the day by distributing banners, fliers and stickers. ADL’s Center on Extremism conducted an analysis of Twitter between May 19 and May 25 and found more than 1600 tweets which appear to celebrate the anniversary of George Floyd’s death. The…

June 02, 2021 Across Europe, protests against COVID-19 restrictions and public campaigns promoting vaccines against the virus have included Holocaust symbols and imagery, such as the yellow star. The utilization of this type of Holocaust imagery wrongly compares the antisemitic, racist, misogynist, xenophobic and homophobic Nazi-regime and its genocidal acts to current government measures to contain the pandemic. Comparing the two is not only an act of moral outrage, but also represents an…

June 01, 2021 Over the last few years, TikTok—the social media app that allows users to create and share short videos—has gained immense popularity. With hundreds of millions of users, the platform is particularly popular among younger individuals. As ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) documented in August 2020, while much of the content on TikTok is lighthearted and fun, extremists have exploited the platform to share hateful content and recruit new adherents. A recent review…