Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) Releases 2022 Edition of Digital Terrorism and Hate Report

From a SWC Post:

On April 28th, the Simon Wiesenthal Center released its 2022 annual Digital Terrorism and Hate Report at a press conference at New York City Hall hosted by New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and seven other influential Council leaders who represent the Big Apple’s diverse ethnic communities—each of whom expressed the need for unity in the struggle against the rising tide of hate.

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams remarked “Across the country and in our city, communities have sadly witnessed and experienced the alarming uptick in hate crimes and violence.

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All members [of the New York City Council] present emphasized the need for unity in the struggle against bigotry in all of its forms including against Asian Americans, African American, Latina, LGBTQ, and Jewish communities.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, founded the Digital Terrorism and Hate project 27 years ago. In his remarks, Rabbi Cooper referenced the insights of the late Nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal who was asked if it the Holocaust can happen again. Mr. Wiesenthal remarked that “If you have hate, plus a crisis, plus technology– anything is possible.”

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SWC’s 2022 Digital Hate Report exposes widespread Russian disinformation and fake news sites to justify and deflect attention away from the war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine, conspiracy theories, virulent anti-Semitic, racist, and xenophobic hate messaging, the targeting of LGBTQ+ and minority communities, and the infiltration of children’s gaming platforms by neo-Nazis and other extremists.

Social media and gaming platforms have emerged as critical global vehicles for the marketing and distribution of violent hatred and terror recruitment. The SWC annual report card is a necessary tool to report and alert the public, from law enforcement to parents about the scope of pernicious messages targeting our children whose lives increasingly revolve around social media.

The report card grades powerful platforms on how well they degrade the marketing capability of bigots as well as challenges platforms that willfully facilitate anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, stereotyping, and bullying.

Resources

News Release

Full Text: 2022 Digital Hate Report Report

Video Recording of Press Conference

Filed under: News, Reports, Video Recordings