Jewish Human Rights Group Urges Social Media Platforms To Delay Livestreaming To Stop Broadcasts Of Terror Attacks

March 5, 2020

CONGRESSMAN SMITH TO INTRODUCE HOUSE RESOLUTION ENDORSING SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER’S CALL FOR FBI TASK FORCE ON ANTI-SEMITISM FOLLOWING SWC MEETING WITH AG BARR

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Joined by Homeland Security Chairman Max Rose (D-NY), Congressman Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), and Congressman Thomas Suozzi (D – Long Island, NY), the global Jewish human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center today presented its annual report on digital terrorism and released a report card evaluating social media platforms’ policies on online hate. This includes alternative platforms used by white nationalists and other extremists. Special focus was Russia-based vk.com, increasingly home to US-based extremist groups and their supporters.

The Center’s report available at Digitalhate.net showed that Congressman Rose himself is a target of online hate by an extremist group for urging Congress and the Trump Administration to designate overseas Neo-Nazi groups as terrorist organizations 

Simon Wiesenthal Center also urged all social media platforms to implement a delay in livestreaming to stop future broadcasts of terror attacks. 

During today’s event, Congressman Smith announced that he is introducing a House resolution endorsing Simon Wiesenthal Center’s call for a special FBI task force on antisemitism. This follows a meeting that Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, held yesterday with US Attorney General William Barr, where he made this official request.

View Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2020 Digital Terrorism + Hate report card at digitalhate.net and below.

 

 

Highlights from the presentation include:

• The failure of platforms to bar purveyors of hate and violence is an invitation for domestic and foreign extremists to expand their efforts, as each local incident can go viral across the globe through live streaming.
• While many mainstream platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have implemented more stringent policies, attacks like the Christchurch shooting continue to be streamed live to large online audiences.
• White nationalists and white supremacists also continue to surge with the help of alternative platforms.