A new book digs into how Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and other platforms may be fueling the rise of antisemitism in the United States and globally.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, 2021 was a low point in the history of American antisemitism. The organization tallied 2,717 antisemitic incidents for that year, the most since it began collecting data in 1979.

Co-edited by Sabine von Mering, professor of German and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Brandeis University, and Monika Hübscher, a PhD candidate at the University of Haifa, Israel, the newly published book Antisemitism on Social Media (Routledge, 2022) is the first comprehensive academic study of social media’s role in spreading antisemitism.

Here are some of the book’s major findings and conclusions:

  • In terms of sheer quantity, there's not a lot of antisemitism on social media.
  • But there doesn't need to be a lot of antisemitism on social media to fuel extremism. It just needs to find the right audience.
  • Q'anon traffics in antisemtic tropes.
  • TikTok exposes children to antisemitism.
  • Jewish people in their 20s and 30s struggle with antisemitic attacks on social media.
  • Don't engage with antisemites on social media.

Read the full article about antisemitism on social media by Lawrence Goodman at Futurity.