SWC Joins 180 NGOs calling on Elon Musk to Adopt IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism

November 16, 2022

Human Rights NGO Urges Twitter to Fight Anti-Semites on Social Media Platform

LOS ANGELES – Wednesday, November 16, 2022 - The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a leading Jewish human rights NGO, is joining 180 civil rights groups from around the world calling on Twitter to adopt the widely accepted IHRA definition of anti-Semitism and apply it to degrade the marketing capabilities of anti-Semites on the social media platform.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean and Director of Social Global Action for the SWC, issued the following statement:

“We believe that with Elon Musk's innovative leadership, Twitter can quickly implement technological solutions to curb anti-Semitism by utilizing the IHRA working definition. We established our Digital Terrorism and Hate Project over a quarter of a century ago. Today, everyone acknowledges that social media platforms serve accelerants in spreading the cancer of anti-Semitic hate, lies, misinformation and conspiracies. Elon Musk has both the responsibility to degrade the capacity of online anti-Semites to leverage Twitter’s powerful platform and the opportunity to inspire other social media giants to follow his lead”

Demonstrating the seriousness of Twitter's antisemitism problem, a letter was sent to Mr. Musk that includes a dataset of more than 1,000 examples of anti-semitic tweets that fall under the IHRA definition. The letter can be found here.

For further information, please email Michele Alkin, Director of Global Communications at malkin@wiesenthal.com or Shawn Rodgers at srodgers@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. Media may also contact James Lambert, Vice President of Rubenstein Public Relations, at jlambert@rubensteinpr.com.  

About the Simon Wiesenthal Center  

 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is a Jewish global human rights organization researching the Holocaust and hate in a historic and contemporary context. The Center confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promotes human rights and dignity, stands with Israel, defends the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaches the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations. With a constituency of over 400,000 households in the United States, it is accredited as an NGO at international organizations including the United Nations, UNESCO, OSCE, Organization of American States (OAS), the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) and the Council of Europe. 

Headquartered in Los Angeles, the Simon Wiesenthal Center maintains offices in New York, Toronto, Miami, Chicago, Paris, Buenos Aires, and Jerusalem.  

 

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