Study: Social media companies failed to remove 84% of antisemitic posts

Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Major social media sites failed to remove 84% of antisemitic posts reported to them using their own tools, according to a report released Monday.

Between May and June, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok took no action to remove 84% of posts containing antisemitic conspiracies, extremism and abuse flagged using their own reporting systems, according to the report released by the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

The nonprofit, which studies the spread of digital hate and misinformation, said it collected and reported 714 antisemitic posts that were collectively viewed at least 7.3 million times to conduct the study.

Platforms failed to act on 89% of posts promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories regarding the 9/11 terror attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic and Jewish control of world affairs. A further 80% of posts containing Holocaust denial were not removed along with 74% of posts alleging blood libel, 70% of racist caricatures and 70% of posts using neo-Nazi imagery.

It found that Facebook performed the worst out of the five platforms, failing to remove 89% of the flagged posts despite updating its hate speech policy to ban Holocaust denial in October.

Twitter followed suit with a similar pledge shortly afterward.

The CCDH study found that Twitter, Instagram and TikTok allow hashtags used for antisemitic content such as "#rothschild, #fakejews and #killthejews" that were used in posts that gained more than 3.3 million impressions.

TikTok failed to take action against accounts that racially abused Jewish users, banning just 5% of such accounts.

The CCDH recommended that the platforms introduce financial penalties to incentivize proper moderation, hire and train more moderators to remove hateful posts and remove groups dedicated to antisemitism as well as banning accounts that directly abuse Jewish users and eliminate antisemitic hashtags.