The Status Quo

Antisemitism continues to threaten Jewish life, culture and safety in 2023. Attacks on Jewish people and sites reportedly reached record high levels in many countries in the last year. By amplifying hateful, prejudicial and extremist ideologies, antisemitism poses a threat to democracy and endangers the realisation of human rights– on- and offline. Antisemitism violates fundamental rights, especially the right to human dignity, the right to equality of treatment and the freedom of thought, conscience and religion. While a substantial amount of antisemitic incidents are committed by individuals affiliated with— or influenced by— extremist movements, antisemitic attitudes are not just a problem among  political fringes. These beliefs are instead “deeply rooted” in mainstream society, where antisemitic discourses have  become increasingly “normalised”. ISD’s analysis has revealed that antisemitism is on the rise online – finding a seven-fold increase in French antisemitic content on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram between 2020 and 2021, and over a 13-fold increase in antisemitic content in German. Considering how closely intertwined offline incidents are related to online activity, it is essential to find holistic responses to address online antisemitism. 

The reality is that the research landscape is currently fragmented, and there is no way to truly measure the reach of this online threat as of yet. Efforts have mainly been driven by  a small group of Jewish civil society organisations and related stakeholders. However, much of this work has not been coordinated across sectors and geographies, efforts have often  been duplicated due to a lack of communication, best practices lost, and results haven’t been shared. Thus, it is of the utmost importance to create a space of exchange, in order to share best practices and to research the threat landscape of online antisemitism. 

Solution

The independent pilot project aimed at building a Coalition to Counter Online Antisemitism (CCOA), funded by google.org/TIDES Foundation through 2025. It will bring together a broad range of stakeholders working on antisemitism— e.g. CSOs, cities, businesses, practitioners and citizen initiatives to create a new set of partnerships to counter online antisemitism at scale. Working to amplify existing best practice, the coalition will build bridges between research, educational measures and policy changes. During the pilot phase, the project primarily focuses on five countries: Germany, France, Italy, Poland and Sweden. 

Three working groups are involved in the areas of research, education, and policy, while contributing and sharing results across the sectors. Research results inform the development of educational material. 

Method 

A strong coalition aiming for a whole-of-society approach between Jewish organisations, government officials, CSOs, platforms and the private sector to facilitate information and research sharing targeting online antisemitism, the exchange of best practices of intervention models and a common roadmap to develop policy solutions to combat online antisemitism will be developed by different working groups. 

ISD Germany will conduct a stakeholder mapping to ensure all relevant CSOs and communities, private sector, sports, the cultural sector as well as key policy makers and law enforcement are involved.  

Research working group: ISD will establish and coordinate a pipeline of crosscutting, international analysis, and research into the network to bridge the gap between the threat landscape analysis conducted by ISD and other thought leaders in this space, and building action on the ground – with a particular focus on how platform systems may present risks in the online antisemitism domain. 

Education working group: The working group will build an international network of multipliers to counter antisemitism via developing a training toolkit for practitioners, law enforcement, government officials and youth. Sub-grants will be given to innovative ideas that build synergies between sectors.

Policy working group: ISD will scope and help disseminate best practice interventions and share evidence-based solutions to promote advocacy power and policy development with a focus on a deepened intersectional understanding of the hybridised threat landscape of online antisemitism. 

A final report will outline the coalition's key findings, including research results, recommendations to policymakers, and an overview of effective educational interventions.