Digital Library
From Bad to Worse Algorithmic Amplification of Antisemitism and Extremism, Research Study One
Topic:
General/Other
Principal Investigators:
ADL Center for Technology & Society
Study Date:
2024
Source:
Center for Technology and Society,Tech Transparency Project,Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
Key Findings:
Do social media companies exacerbate antisemitism and hate through their own recommendation and amplification tools? ADL investigated how four of the biggest social media platforms treated users who searched for or engaged with content related to anti-Jewish tropes, conspiracy theories, and other topics. Three of them–Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (now known as X after a rebranding by owner Elon Musk)–filled their feeds with far more antisemitic content and conspiratorial accounts and recommended the most hateful influencers and pages to follow. One platform, YouTube, did not.
The findings were troubling: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter all suggested explicitly antisemitic and extremist content to the personas, directing them toward hateful myths and disinformation about Jews. The content often violated the platforms’ own hate speech policies. The more the personas engaged with platform recommendations–by liking suggested pages or following suggested accounts—the more antisemitic and extremist content they were fed.
The results show that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are not only hosting antisemitic and extremist content, but are actually suggesting it to users who have looked at or searched for conspiracy-related content—helping hateful ideas find a potentially receptive audience. This is a disturbing dynamic, given that antisemitic incidents in the U.S., including harassment, vandalism, and physical assaults, recently surged to historic levels.
Methodology:
In this joint study by the ADL Center for Technology and Society (CTS) and Tech Transparency Project (TTP), researchers created six test personas of different ages and genders and set up accounts for them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Researchers had them search each platform for a basket of terms related to anti-Jewish conspiracy theories as well as popular internet personalities, commentators, and video games. The study then examined the content that the platforms’ algorithms recommended to these hypothetical users.
Two of the personas identified as 32-year-old men, two identified as 32-year-old women, and two identified as 14-year-olds who did not specify a gender. The researchers set up each persona on a virtual machine (a digital version of a physical computer) with its own IP address and associated each persona with a unique SIM card and mobile phone number.
Researchers had each of the six personas search Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for a set of 50 terms to establish their interests (referred to in this study as the “seeding terms”). The terms included common conspiracy theory phrases like “Flat Earth” and “The Deep State”; public figures who have posted antisemitic content such as rapper Kanye West and YouTube star PewDiePie; individuals and organizations who have become conspiracy theory targets like Microsoft co- founder Bill Gates and billionaire philanthropist George Soros; and words like “Elites” and “The Media,” which are associated with anti-Jewish tropes. The list also included the names of popular internet personalities and commentators.
For the purposes of this report, ADL refer to the company as Twitter, as that was the name when the investigations were conducted.