QAnon,7 on which viral antisemitic content had been posted frequently for years. Still, relatively new platforms like the video-sharing social network TikTok also have rampant antisemitism issues.
A recent study by Gabriel Weiman and Natali Masri focuses on TikTok, whose main audience is children and youth.8 The study identifies how radical right-wing extremists use social platforms to disseminate and normalize their ideologies—including antisemitism, Holocaust denial, xenophobia, homophobia, and misogyny—on a large scale, specifically tailored towards youth.9
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has also become a conduit of antisemitic expression. Examples include memes that show the anti-Jewish “The Happy Merchant” as a virus; posts that refer to the coronavirus as the ‘Jew flu’; or QAnon’s conspiracy myth that Bill Gates is a Jew who secretly wants to implant microchips in people receiving a COVID-19 vaccination.
In Germany, the antisemitic content from social media platforms has informed the protests on the streets in which COVID-19 deniers and protestors against COVID-19 restrictions merged with right-wing extremists.10 The demonstrators not only walked towards the German Reichstag with Reichsbürger (Reich citizen) and Imperial flags, both symbols of the German radical right, but also trivialized the Holocaust by wearing the yellow star badge from the Nazi era, in protest against the restrictions. Connections to global right-wing extremist ideology such as QAnon was visible among the demonstrators in Berlin.
In Germany, antisemitism even on social media can be prosecuted as a hate crime. To avoid detection, whether by AI or content moderation, users employ simple techniques: instead of writing Rothschild or Rubinstein, names linked to the stereotype of the rich and powerful Jews, they just write “-schild” or “-stein”. The insinuation is subtle but still understandable.
Screenshot from Twitter by the author
Translation:
A: Whose bread I eat whose song I sing. These people get donations from companies. Or as is the Arabic proverb: Do not spit into the fountain from which you drink.
B: Thank you for this informative insight. Are they coincidentally donors whose names end with -schild or -stein?
Another form of transformation of antisemitism on social media is by its deplatforming. A study by Richard Rogers shows how social media networks are deplatforming malicious actors in their effort to combat hate speech.11 An infamous example of deplatforming is the former vegan chef and social media personality Attila Hildmann from Germany.
Hildmann used social media, such as Instagram and Facebook, extensively before being banned due to his increased radical right content. From social media, Hildmann has moved to the instant messenger Telegram, where he has over 84,000 followers. He frequently posts antisemitic content referencing QAnon. He also posted that the German chancellor Angela Merkel is the leader of a Zionist regime that aims to destroy the German race, that the Holocaust didn’t happen, and that Jews and Zionists are parasites and subhuman.12
Hildmann was also one of the main actors at the above mentioned demonstration in Berlin. He was arrested at the Russian embassy, where he asked Putin through loudspeakers to liberate the Germans from what he perceived as the current German dictatorship.13
These examples offer a glimpse into the issue of antisemitism at a time when digital communication seems to be exploding and social media has a particularly large influence on societal discourse. Since the emergence of social media, antisemitic incidents and radical right-wing actors using the platforms to advance their agendas have been a growing concern. Until now, scholarly attention to the problem has been surprisingly sparse, however. The danger that antisemitic hate speech poses and the numerous violent offline incidents that have been linked to antisemitic content on social media platforms beg for a comprehensive academic and political intervention.
Monika Hübscher is a Doctoral Fellow at CARR and doctoral candidate in German and European studies at Haifa University.
1 Ben Night, “German Synagogue Attacker Trial Reveals Police Failure,” Deutsche Welle, September 9, 2020, https://www.dw.com/en/german-synagogue-attack-trial-reveals-police-failures/a-54870086.
2 “Germany: Halle Suspect Confesses to Yom Kippur Shooting,” Deutsche Welle, October 11, 2020, https://www.dw.com/en/germany-halle-suspect-confesses-to-yom-kippur-shooting/a-50791324.
3 Valentin Hacken (@valentinhacken_), Twitter, September 8, 2020, 11:36 a.m., https://twitter.com/valentinhacken_/status/1303266013551767553.
4 Andre Oboler, “Online Antisemitism 2.0. ‘Social Antisemitism’ on the ‘Social Web’,” Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs no. 67 (2008), https://jcpa.org/article/online-antisemitism-2-0-social-antisemitism-on-the-social-web/.
5 Andre Oboler, “Recognizing Hate Speech: Antisemitism on Facebook,” Andre Oboler, March 21, 2013, http://www.oboler.com/?p=1557.
6 Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin, “As QAnon Grew, Facebook and Twitter Missed Years of Warning Signs About the Conspiracy Theory’s Violent Nature,” The Washington Post, October 3, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/01/facebook-qanon-conspiracies-trump/.
7 Julia DeCook, “QAnon Has Gone from Fringe Conspiracy to Full-Blown Cult,” CARR Insight Blog, September 14, 2020, https://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/2020/09/14/1-3-2/.
8 ILTV—Israel News, “Anti-Semitism on Social Media—Professor Gabi Weimann,” YouTube video, posted July 23, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5kv91AgQWY.
9 Gabriel Weimann and Natalie Masri, “Research Note: Spreading Hate on TikTok,” Studies in Conflict & Terrorism (2020): 1-14.
10 Pascale Davies, “Germany Slams Attempt to Storm Reichstag After COVID-19 Protest,” Euronews, August 30, 2020, https://www.euronews.com/2020/08/29/thousands-of-anti-corona-protesters-flood-berlin.
11 Richard Rogers, “Deplatforming: Following Extreme Internet Celebrities to Telegram and Alternative Social Media,” European Journal of Communication 35, no. 3 (2020): 213–29.
12 Celia Jean, “Germany’s Antisemitism Czar Calls to Investigate German
