Two million antisemitic tweets in two years: study shows rising hate

Tweets about Israel that were rife with antisemitic beliefs were posted almost every five seconds in 2020.

Antisemitism on Twitter has been on the rise with one in every ten tweets mentioning Jews or Israel classified as antisemitic in a new study.

The peer-reviewed study by the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) found that between the years 2019 and 2020, there were more than two million antisemitic tweets.

Despite what Twitter had said in the past about them "cracking down on antisemitism and Holocaust denial," ISCA noted that those kinds of tweets have grown.

"Antisemitic content was mostly related to conspiracies of Jewish global dominance, the Middle East conflict and the Holocaust," ISCA 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."

Antisemitic content is more likely to be retweeted than other content mentioning Jews or Israel. 

One popular tweet, retweeted more than 40,000 times, even wished large-scale physical harm to the Israeli population: “Dear Wuhan virus, please go to Israel.”

READ MORE
Antisemitism on Twitter is on the rise, says new study (Jerusalem Post)
Twitter said in the past that it would be "cracking down on antisemitism and Holocaust denial."

Full study: Differences between antisemitic and non-antisemitic English language tweets (Springer)

RELATED STORIES
The GOP’s Surrender to the antisemites (Intelligencer)
Republicans no longer have the gatekeeping force to exclude the antisemites, less still to steer the party away from the kind of paranoid rhetoric that invites their participation.

Israel and France to advance international coalition to battle antisemitism (Jerusalem Post)
Representatives of government ministries of both countries, civil society and the French Jewish community officials convened in Paris to discuss undergoing efforts to reduce antisemitism in France.

Image: Deborah Stone