Stanford CIS

Online anti-Semitism: Difficult to Fight, but Even Harder to Quantify

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"Danielle Citron, a professor of law at the University of Maryland and an expert on online harassment, is not sure whether online anti-Semitism is spreading or simply drawing more attention. “What I can say is that it’s become more mainstream,” she notes. “It is no longer hidden in the dark corners of the internet like it once was. We are now seeing it on very mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter.”

At the same time, Jew-haters are clearly feeling more emboldened – not only by the anonymity provided by social media, says Citron, but also, more recently, by the nod they’ve received from the Republican presidential hopeful. “Trump gives people permission to be hateful, whether that is to women, to the disabled or to Jews,” she explains."