On Oct. 11 WPTV out of West Palm Beach featured Brandeis professor Sabine von Mering (CGES) in an article discussing her newly co-edited book with University of Haifa Ph.D. student Monika Hübscher, entitled “Antisemitism on Social Media.”
The book, published in March 2022, addresses how social media has increased the dissemination of antisemitism across numerous platforms. According to the book’s synopsis, it “demonstrates how social media is weaponized through the dissemination of antisemitic content by political actors from the right, the left, and the extreme fringe, and critically assesses existing counter-strategies.” Another Brandeis professor, Jonathan D. Sarna (NEJS), among others, reviewed the book and wrote that: “this timely, disturbing and all-too-necessary book shows from a global perspective how antisemitism has taken hold within contemporary social media. The authors document the antisemitism of conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and Islamists; discuss the implications of omnipresent hate speech; and propose counter measures. Their scholarship illuminates the internet’s darkest corners and exposes the vulnerable underside of the digital revolution.”
The WPTV article also highlighted how the book is timely, as it was published the year after the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reached an all-time high for antisemitic incidents in the U.S. In the article, von Mering is quoted saying that “technology rewards negativity” through the use of algorithms.
In the book, TikTok is described as a uniquely large source of antisemitism that millions of youth have access to online. Two contributors to the book write that “TikTok has become a magnet and a hotbed for violent and extremist content.” Some examples of antisemitism on TikTok include antisemitic sermons, conspiracy theories and caricatures in the form of filters.
It isn’t just anti-Jewish hate speech that occurs often online, but anti-LGBT hate speech also occurs often and harms LGBT youth who are faced with it, according to a 2021 study published in the Women and Criminal Justice journal. The WPTV article noted how there has been a 28% increase in hate speech online from the years of 2019 to 2021 and that over one-third of Americans have been severely harassed online.
The phenomenon of hate speech on social media is partially fueled by conspiracy theories pushed by QAnon and based on antisemitic tropes, explains a Brandeis University article on the topic.
Von Mering explains in the WPTV article that this is the first book published on the topic of hate speech on social media and that “we urgently need more research.”
