On Facebook, some pro-Palestinian groups have become a hotbed of antisemitism, study says

Administrators of popular pro-Palestine groups are spreading antisemitic hate on Facebook and parent company Meta isn’t doing enough to stop them.

That’s the finding of a new study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

Tests run by researchers in 10 Facebook groups with a combined 300,000 members found that the majority – 76% – of anti-Jewish hate speech was ignored by administrators and 91% of accounts posting anti-Jewish hate were not removed.

When researchers reported antisemitic posts to Facebook, moderators did not take any action in 99% of the cases.

“Nefarious individuals have cynically embedded themselves in leadership positions in Facebook Groups that serve as meeting places for well-meaning people to express their solidarity with the Palestinian cause,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said in the study. “We found that most content in these groups primarily entailed political criticisms of the Israeli government and solidarity with Palestinian people.

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