SWC's New 2021 Digital Terrorism & Hate Report finds Jews, Asian Americans, African Americans, LGBTQ, immigrants + other minority groups targeted

March 16, 2021

Today, the Simon Wiesenthal is releasing sobering examples and data in its annual Digital Terrorism & Hate report card and online study, which evaluates social media platforms’ policies on online hatred.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this year’s outcomes with an explosion of hate and lurid conspiracies proliferating across social media channels – led by Telegram – vilifying and threatening Jews, Asian Americans, African Americans, the LGBTQ community, immigrants and other minority groups.

While some social media giants took unprecedented steps to curb misinformation and hate speech
 in the past year, too often, those efforts have been strikingly selective, politically tainted, and grossly insufficient in addressing real-time hate and bigotry. 

The quick read:

• The SWC is calling on the Big-Five social media giants to refocus on degrading the marketing capabilities of bigots, anti-Semites and terrorists – foreign and domestic.

• Not a single mainstream nor emerging social media platform earned an ‘A’ grade in this year’s assessment.

• Among the “Big Five,” Facebook/Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube/Google have all received a “B-”; combined audience amounts to almost six billion users.

• Other increasingly widespread platforms like Telegram and Parler have received a “D-“ and a “D,” respectively.

• The worst grades have gone to the networking sites AnonUp, Gab, and 8Kun, as well as the video platform Brighteon, all of which receives “Fs.” These sites provide a full menu of social media options for extremists.

To read the full report click here.

For further information contact the Center’s Communications department at pressinquiries@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).