Some of the content “originates in neo-Nazi groups, anti-Zionist organizations, and state-sponsored activities from Iran and other countries,” according to a leading watchdog group.
By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner
Antisemitism on Twitter is far more common than previously acknowledged, a new study has revealed.
On Sunday, the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) said it found that between 2019 and 2020, over two million tweets about Jews and Israel were antisemitic, with one being posted every twenty seconds in 2020.
The ISCA, a scholarly institute affiliated with Indiana University, “pursues high-level scholarly research into present-day manifestations of anti-Jewish animosity,” according to its website.
“Antisemitic content was mostly related to conspiracies of Jewish global dominance, the Middle East conflict, and the Holocaust,” the group said. “We need to do more research to identify sources of antisemitic propaganda. Some of it originates in neo-Nazi groups, anti-Zionist organizations, and state-sponsored activities from Iran and other countries.”
ISCA noted that such tweets proliferated “despite claims from Twitter that they were cracking down on antisemitism and Holocaust denial.”
In 2019, 6.9% of all Twitter conversations about Jews — 849,253 — were antisemitic. In 2020, 10.7% — 1, 531, 912 —percent were. That same year, an antisemitic tweet about Israel was posted every 5 seconds, totaling over 6 million, or 14% of all tweets about the Jewish State.
“Social media has become the largest medium for antisemitic narratives, which can radicalize individuals and lead to violence,” said the study, which examined primarily lexical differences between antisemitic and non antisemitic tweets. “The Coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the challenged posed by hatred against Jews and antisemitic conspiracy theories.”