Dear John,

Social media platforms are breeding grounds for hate at a frightening scale, and as very public figures easily targeted by antisemites and extremists, Jewish members of Congress often experience this at its worst. You will be alarmed, but probably not surprised, to know that the 30 Jewish members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans alike — who are running for re-election in 2020 are being inundated with antisemitic tropes and misinformation on Twitter.

These findings come from a new report analyzing every tweet across a single month that was directed at the 30 incumbent Jewish members of the House and Senate who are running for reelection. To analyze this social media snapshot, we used our new Online Hate Index, a pathbreaking tool developed to automate the classification of hate speech online, paired with manual review by researchers in our Center for Technology and Society (CTS).

The main categories of antisemitic content included explicit antisemitic language, George Soros-related conspiracy theories, tropes related to Jewish power and control and tweets questioning the loyalty and faith of Jewish incumbents.

If you are worried about how social media has the potential to distort the information we use to select our leaders, and to empower those who spread antisemitism online, we encourage you to read this report for a disturbing but informative snapshot of the online hate being spread against Jewish incumbents in this election year.

The report also has recommendations for elected officials and candidates who are being confronted by divisiveness and misinformation, and for social media companies that must do a better job enforcing their policies against hate-filled postings, including the many identified during this study as clearly violating Twitter’s rules and community guidelines. While Twitter has taken many steps to deal with hate speech that violates their terms of service, blatant antisemitism is not being identified and removed quickly enough. We hope this study pushes the platform to more swiftly and consistently enforce policies meant to curtail antisemitic content.

For another look at this important new report, see today’s Wall Street Journal coverage here.

TAKE ACTION

You can help curb election-related extremism and hate by protecting voting rights. We encourage you to stay informed and get involved:

• Read ADL’s ‘At the Extremes: The 2020 Election and American Extremism’ | Part 1 — Part 2
• Engage your family in a discussion about the purpose and process of voting as well as barriers to and discrimination in voting.
• Fight disinformation and hate surrounding candidates by reporting to and sharing Common Cause’s Disinformation Tip Line.
• Spread good information! Make sure your friends and family have all the details they need to exercise their right to vote.
• Make a plan to vote. Share your plan with your networks and encourage them to do the same!
• Become an Election Protection Volunteer with 866-OUR-VOTE. Or, share this hotline with your friends and family and make sure election day is safe, fair, and accessible for all!

Thank you for standing with ADL to safeguard the right to vote, and to prevent the spread of extremism during the election season and beyond.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Greenblatt

CEO and National Director

ADL