FRA report: European online environment tainted by anti-Semitic ideas

Polish poster for "Tevye the Milkman", by Shalom Aleichem According to a report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), most incidents of anti-Semitism have occurred online.

The cited document, which polled the perception of almost 8,000 Jewish respondents from 13 EU member states and 12 organizations belonging to the Jewish community, shows that of the 96% of respondents who reported any anti-Semitic manifestation, the majority (74%) faced with anti-Semitism both online and offline. Only 6% of the respondents were confronted with manifestations of anti-Semitism exclusively offline. Only one in five respondents (20%) encountered manifestations of anti-Semitism exclusively online.

"The share of those who face anti-Semitism exclusively online is comparatively higher in Romania (35%), Hungary (34%) and the Czech Republic (32%)", states the FRA report, which mentions, however, that there are European countries where online anti-Semitism they are permanently at worrying levels, such as Spain (72%) and Italy (70%).

Online anti-Semitism in Romania seems to be on the rise, although there is law 157/2018 against the hostility shown towards Jews - on some measures to prevent and combat anti-Semitism, a normative act for the observance of which no one acts.

According to art. 2 letter d of the law, by anti-Semitic materials are understood: images, text messages, audio-video content, as well as any other such representations, which convey ideas, concepts or doctrines that promote anti-Semitism, promoted in any way (ed. - including online ).

The above acts constitute crimes. Thus, Article 3 of Law 157/2018 stipulates that the person's act of promoting, in public, in any way, anti-Semitic ideas, concepts or doctrines constitutes a crime and is punishable by imprisonment from 3 months to 3 years and the prohibition of certain rights. Article 4 of the same normative act shows that distributing or making available to the public, by any means, anti-Semitic materials constitutes a crime and is punishable by imprisonment from one to 5 years.

The passivity of the Romanian authorities in the face of the violation of the law encourages aggression and creates insecurity not necessarily for the Jews, who represent a tiny percentage of the Romanian population - according to the 2022 census in our country only 2378 people declared themselves to be Jews, i.e. 0.01% of the population of the country -, but for all other citizens.

• Online anti-Semitism in Romania dominated by the stereotype that Jews rule the world

The experts of the European agency note that the development of online platforms and their easy access by any user of a device connected to the Internet has led to an increasing political involvement of citizens, which has also attracted the creation of new ways of expressing and spreading hate online, including anti-Semitism, something also found by the FRA report regarding the moderation of online content, which presents high levels of

online hate, including anti-Semitism.

The European agency's report shows: "Detecting anti-Semitism online is a challenge. A variety of measures are needed to combat hate online, especially as it is a rapidly developing area. Online anti-Semitism often occurs as a reaction to events reported in the media, most recently following the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. The steady growth and scale of online anti-Semitism is a systemic risk that clearly needs to be addressed. (...) The survey asked the 90% of respondents who reported anti-Semitic content online, what the most recent content was and what it was about. 17% of them claim that online Jews are accused of having global power and control over finance, media, politics and the economy.

15% of respondents say that they have come across online opinions that deny Israel's right to exist as a state, 13% of opinions that claim that Israel is pursuing a Nazi policy, and 12% that the Israeli government applies a double standard to democratic states. The stereotype that the power of the world is held by the Jews is most often used online in 5 of the 13 countries examined, namely in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden".

According to the cited document, one in four (25%) respondents who experienced anti-Semitism online encountered it most recently on Facebook, then on online news sites and in the mass media (20%), then on the X network - former Twitter (19%), Instagram (12%), on various internet forums (7%), TikTok (6%) and YouTube (4%).

"These percentages reflect the use of online platforms by the respondents and are not accurate, real representations of the volume of anti-Semitic content on each platform. In any case, Facebook represents the largest share of anti-Semitic manifestations encountered by respondents, in 9 of the 13 European states included in the report. to the respondents", state the experts of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.

• 76% of anti-Semitic content is played through various online texts or messages

The study shows that 76% of the respondents stated that the majority of anti-Semitic content in the online environment consists of texts published by different people, while 23% of the respondents stated that they also encountered audio-visual content, such as images, videos, memes images or gifs.

Visual anti-Semitic content is most prevalent on Telegram (43%), TikTok (39%), Instagram (37%) and WhatsApp (32%), and audio anti-Semitic content is more common on YouTube (28%) and TikTok (19 %).

37% of anti-Semitic content online comes from users, profiles or accounts that do not include personal information, or better said from individuals the respondents do not know.

29% of anti-Semitic online content belongs to anonymous users or anonymous accounts, 21% comes from news sites or various media pages, and in 13% of cases the author of the anti-Semitic content was a politician or member of a political party. In 11% of cases, the anti-Semitic content was created by a celebrity or an influencer.

In only 2% of cases, the respondents claim that the said anti-Semitic content was created by automatic programs, such as robots that operate on the Internet. Anonymous users who create anti-Semitic content are found relatively often on LinkedIn (51%), Telegram (45%) and TikTok (40%). Perpetrators who share their personal information but are unknown to respondents in the FRA survey are most often found on TikTok (59%), Facebook (53%) and Instagram (50%).

• Digital Services Act, not respected by online platforms regarding the reporting and removal of anti-Semitic content

All this is happening despite the fact that, on February 17, 2024, the Digital Services Act came into force, the European directive that obliges online platforms to provide users with ways to easily report illegal content, including anti-Semitism, reporting which platforms must react quickly. Articles 16 and 22 of the DSA require platforms to implement notification mechanisms. Platforms must prioritize reports received from trusted whistleblowers, which are typically organizations specializing in detecting illegal content, including organizations specializing in addressing anti-Semitic content.

The European directive also states that providers of large online platforms and online search engines must analyze, assess and mitigate any systemic risk given the behavior of users on those platforms and engines. Anti-Semitic content could be considered a systemic risk in this context, as it prevents the exercise of fundamental rights and has a negative effect on ethnic Jews.

Regarding compliance with the European directive, the FRA report notes that 81% of respondents who most recently reported an anti-Semitic incident on an online platform are dissatisfied with the way they are made to submit the complaint. Most reports were made for anti-Semitic content propagated on TikTok and Instagram, but only one in 10 reports was dealt with satisfactorily by the respective platforms.

• Increased number of physical attacks against Jews after the events of October 7, 2023

According to the FRA report, the Jewish community in Europe is facing "a growing wave of anti-Semitism", the conflict in the Middle East "eroding" the progress made in the fight against it.

"The spillover effect of the conflict in the Middle East is eroding the progress made in combating anti-Jewish hatred," said Sirpa Rautio, the director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, continuing: "Jews are more scared than ever".

The report also finds that even before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war, 96% of European Jews said they had experienced anti-Semitism.

In France, 74% of Jews felt that the Hamas-Israel war had affected their sense of security, the highest rate among the countries surveyed, while in the EU, 76% of Jews surveyed said they hid their identity Jewish "at least occasionally", while 34% avoid Jewish events or websites "because they don't feel safe".

It is certain that the phenomenon is also increasing in our country, despite the existence of law 157/2018 and the National Strategy for the prevention and combating of anti-Semitism, xenophobia, radicalization and hate speech, a document which shows that, although in our country no acts of violence leading to the loss of human lives were recorded, there is a risk that in the future there will be an increase in extremist and xenophobic acts, which are spreading rapidly especially on social networks.

The quoted strategy shows that acts of vandalism on some Jewish institutions and cemeteries, graffiti with Nazi, neo-Legionarian, anti-Semitic and racist slogans, isolated incidents of physical violence on an ethnic basis, sporadic local anti-immigration demonstrations, chanting were recorded on the national territory racist and the proliferation, in the online environment, of racist, radical, xenophobic messages that incite hatred against those who are perceived to be different from an ethnic, religious, linguistic or cultural point of view.

It seems, however, that anti-Semitic manifestations have increased recently, propagated by some politicians, a negative example in this sense being the clearly anti-Semitic attitude shown in the Romanian Parliament by the independent senator Diana Şoşoacă, on the occasion of the anniversary of the friendship day between Israel and Romania, in May 14, 2024. Attitude which, until today, is not the subject of any criminal case, although the law 157/2018 is quite clear.