by: Jonathan Greenblatt | November 02, 2018 New York Daily News In Pittsburgh this week, the Jewish community has been burying its dead, the innocent men and women massacred by an anti-Semite while they were praying at the Tree of Life synagogue.
For many of us, social media platforms — such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — have been vital ways to connect with people near and far to share our grief, anger and determination as well as ways to take action, from…
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by: Jonathan Greenblatt | October 26, 2018 The Washington Post American colleges are grappling with the challenge of striking the right balance between maintaining a safe, welcoming environment and one where freedom of speech and inquiry are prized. But it’s not a hard call, or it shouldn’t be, when dealing with bigotry and discrimination on campus.
Unfortunately, U.S. colleges are increasingly the scenes of anti-Semitic incidents, the continuation of a trend that we at the…
October 11, 2018 Hungarian Jewish billionaire, philanthropist and Holocaust survivor George Soros is widely recognized for funding progressive political and social causes, usually through grants made by his Open Society Foundations. As a result, Soros has become a lightning rod for conservative and right-wing groups who object to his funding of liberal causes.
In far-right circles worldwide, Soros’ philanthropy often is recast as fodder for outsized conspiracy theories, including…
by: Jonathan Greenblatt | October 04, 2018 The Times of Israel Academic freedom is a cherished value in universities. It is predicated on the idea that professors can teach and students can learn without other forces interfering in the process, limiting the pursuit of ideas. And yet, a recent incident at Ann Arbor suggests that is not always the case – that professors actually can shut down conversation and constrain academic freedom based purely on their politics.
By this point, the…
New York, NY, September 28, 2018 ... The following is a statement from ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in response to Reddit's new policy to quarantine communities that propagate misinformation, including Holocaust denial.
"Holocaust denial is hate speech. Tech platforms have a moral and ethical obligation to prevent such anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from spreading. That's why we're grateful to see Reddit take this proactive step to reduce the number of people who will see such hateful…
July 26, 2018 By Samuel Woolley | Belfer Fellow with ADL's Center for Technology and Society
Computational propaganda — the use of automation and algorithms on social media to manipulate public opinion — has become a global phenomenon. This has come as a surprise to many in the technology sector, and it’s quite the adverse development given that less than a decade ago experts hailed social media as a savior for democratic communication. Russian…
June 25, 2018 By Karen Schrier | Belfer Fellow with ADL's Center for Technology and Society
Can games be used to support positive social change, connectedness, and caring, and help reduce bias? These are the big questions I will be exploring over the next year as a Belfer Fellow with ADL’s Center for Technology and Society. There are many questions in this area that need to be answered, but here are a few initial insights:
Games may support empathy — but there are…
by: Kenneth Jacobson | June 09, 2018 The Times of Israel The tragic events that took place on the Israeli-Gaza border in recent weeks were only the latest manifestation of a decades-long pattern: the Palestinians take extreme actions, the Israelis react and the international community and media come down hard on Israel.
The result is always the same: Israel’s image is hurt, but the Palestinians ultimately suffer far more.
How is this so? In the name of standing up for the…
May 18, 2018 By Oren Segal | Director of the Center on Extremism
Supporters of Patrick Little’s campaign for Dianne Feinstein’s U.S. Senate seat have taken up a disturbing new tactic: virulently anti-Semitic robocalls.
Little, an unabashed anti-Semite and racist who attended the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, is polling at around 18%, well behind Feinstein in California’s party-blind June 5th…
ADL's Center for Technology and Society's new and innovative work to fight hate and bias in games and emerging media.
New York, NY, May 16, 2018 … The Anti-Defamation League released a statement today after Twitter shared the results of a new approach it has taken since March to reduce the amount of abuse on the platform.
The following is a statement from Brittan Heller, Director of ADL’s Center for Technology and Society:
“Twitter's new approach to disruptive and harassing tweets is a promising and important step in addressing hate online. It is especially so in terms of how it…
By Brittan Heller | Director for Technology and Society May 02, 2018 WIRED When he testified before Congress last month, FacebookCEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the problem of using artificial intelligence to identify online hate speech. He said he was optimistic that in five to 10 years, “We will have AI tools that can get into some of the linguistic nuances of different types of content to be more accurate in flagging content for our systems, but today we&rsquo…
By Sharon Nazarian | Senior Vice President for International Affairs January 25, 2018 The Forward Last week, American Zionists were told they could not be part of the feminist movement — again.
A number of pro-Palestinian groups, most notably the Palestinian American Women’s Association, boycotted Saturday’s L.A. Women’s March. They wouldn’t attend due to the fact that actress Scarlett Johansson, known to be a proud Zionist, was one of the speakers.
Hardly…
January 10, 2018 By Brittan Heller | Director of the Center for Technology and Society & Aaron Sussman | Associate National Civil Rights Counsel
It was a hoax turned deadly. On the evening of December 28, a distressed-sounding man called the police in Wichita, Kansas, and confessed that he had shot his father in the head, was holding his mother and sibling hostage, and had poured gasoline in the house, threatening to set it on fire. He then gave the police his address.
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December 19, 2017 Following Monday's implementation of new safety rules on Twitter, a number of users associated with white supremacy and other hateful ideologies found themselves no longer allowed on the platform.
"ADL commends Twitter for taking these significant steps to tackle hate on their platform. We long urged Twitter to push back against hateful and violent rhetoric, and these latest actions are encouraging," CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. …
December 19, 2017 President Trump’s December 6 declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and setting in motion the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem engendered strong diplomatic protests, as well as some protests in the streets.
Moving beyond their initial outraged reaction, some Arabic-language media is continuing to focus on this issue, with editorial cartoons suggesting Jewish and Israeli domination of the United States.
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December 18, 2017 Cartoons published in Qatari media used anti-Semitic imagery in its criticism of a Bahraini non-governmental delegation to Israel as an act of betrayal of Arab nationalism.
According to reports, an unofficial Bahraini delegation comprised of religious figures made a visit to Jerusalem this month in order to convey a message of tolerance. Bahrain has no formal ties with Israel and this is considered a first-of-its-kind visit; in response to criticism over the visit,…
December 11, 2017 President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was widely condemned by Arab governments. Arabic-language media followed suit, and some outlets even used the historic declaration to propagate anti-Semitic cartoons relating to Jews, Jerusalem, and/or U.S.-Israel relations. In some instances, these cartoons suggest that Israel controls or dominates U.S. foreign policy, for example depicting U.S. President Donald Trump as a puppet operated by Israeli…
December 08, 2017 All online platforms with user-generated content struggle with how best to moderate that content.The stakes are especially high when the platform is exclusively aimed at young children.
This is something YouTube, whose parent company Google is part of ADL’s Problem-Solving Lab, learned in a particularly disturbing way, as the young viewers of its popular YouTube Kids app were suddenly exposed to videos of their favorite characters suffering grisly deaths,…
November 30, 2017 November 24 witnessed the deadliest terror attack in Egypt’s history when gunmen detonated explosives at a Sufi mosque in the Sinai Peninsula and then sprayed the worshippers with bullets, killing more than 300 people and wounding more than 100. While no organization claimed responsibility for the attack, it is thought to have been carried out by local militants affiliated with the Islamic State.
Sufism, a branch of Islam, is a minority regarded by the Islamic…