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Dear John,
How safe are you online?
According to the latest results from the
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ADL Center for Technology and Society’s annual survey of hate and harassment online, despite the seeming blitz of self-regulation from technology companies, online hate and harassment remains at unacceptable levels.
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- Asian-American respondents saw the largest year-over-year rise in severe online harassment. This appears consistent with the surge in anti-Asian hate and attacks that ADL and others have reported.
- African-American respondents reported a sharp overall rise in race-based harassment. This was an unsurprising finding following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black individuals by police officers, which sparked perhaps the biggest protest movement in American history.
- For the third consecutive year, LGBTQ+ respondents experienced higher rates of harassment than all other demographics.
- Jewish respondents reported a small jump in online harassment.
With 41% of Americans encountering some form of online hate and harassment, being a victim online has become a common experience — and that experience does not appear to be improving. In the survey, conducted online during January 2021, respondents indicated that they experienced the most harassment on Facebook, followed by Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. These and other technology companies are not adequately gearing up to handle the magnitude of the problem, regardless of what their public-facing statements say to the contrary.
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READ THE REPORT
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HOW TO HOLD SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ACCOUNTABLE
It has become increasingly clear that on their own, technology companies and the laws that regulate them are not effectively preventing hate and extremism from proliferating online, despite consequences that have included violent attacks and serious harm, even death.
Our new
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REPAIR Plan offers a clear and comprehensive framework for platforms and policymakers to take meaningful action to decrease online hate and extremism. It also holds platforms and individual perpetrators accountable for enabling online hate and extremism.
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The REPAIR Plan demands that social media companies prioritize people over profit. They must stop amplifying inflammatory content to increase their ad revenue, and they need to provide people who are harmed with effective access to reporting and remedies.
Our local and national laws need to be improved as well. In particular, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act should be reformed to end the near-total immunity from liability enjoyed by tech companies for unlawful user content and conduct. It also focuses on making changes that do not result in an overbroad suppression of free speech, nor unintentionally cement the monopolistic power of Big Tech.
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TAKE ACTION NOW.
You can help reduce hate online.
ADL’s REPAIR Plan calls for significant improvements to state and federal legal protections for targets of online harassment, including victims of abuse such as doxing and swatting. To do this, we have championed “Backspace Hate” bills to close gaps and strengthen laws that currently deny full legal protection to victims.
Thanks to the engagement of our supporters around the country, Backspace Hate bills have already been introduced in seven states during 2021 legislative sessions. These proposed laws would protect targets of online hate by holding their perpetrators accountable, and if passed would join a Backspace Hate bill targeting swatting that was enacted and signed into law in Washington State in 2020.
Your voice matters, so please
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go to our REPAIR page to sign the ADL Backspace Hate petition to amplify the need for our lawmakers to support victims and targets of online hate and harassment.
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Protect Victims of Online Hate with Backspace Hate Now
Thank you for speaking out against online hate as part of the ADL community.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Greenblatt
CEO and National Director
ADL
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