Social media giants 'are failing to deal with anti-Semitism': Tech companies took no action on 84 per cent of abusive posts, report reveals

 Social media sites failed to act on 84 per cent of reported anti-Semitic posts, a report reveals.

Posts involving propaganda and hate, including claims that the Holocaust was a hoax, were not acted upon by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

The Centre for Countering Digital Hate, a US-UK group, reported 714 posts across leading social media firms over the space of six weeks. 

Out of the 714 it flagged up, which had garnered approximately 7.3million impressions worldwide, only 114 were deleted.

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The Centre for Countering Digital Hate, a US-UK group, reported 714 posts across leading social media firms over the space of six weeks

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Imran Ahmed (left), the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said 'social media companies allow bigots to keep their accounts open and their hate to remain online'. And the Board of Deputies of British Jews president Marie van der Zyl (right) said social media companies are 'repeatedly failing not just their Jewish users, but all Jews, online or offline'

This comes after the centre said Instagram failed to take down more than 94 per cent of racist abuse accounts targeting Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka after England's Euros 2020 final defeat to Italy.

CCDH's Failure to Protect project found that the platforms are particularly poor at acting on conspiracy theories, including Holocaust denial and the legitimacy of Anne Frank's diary.

Facebook was found to have removed the least number of reported posts, acting on just 10.9 percent out of the 129 posts flagged.

The report even claims that Facebook placed a disclaimer for one viral post denying the holocaust, as opposed to removing it entirely.

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The centre's Imran Ahmed said 'social media companies allow bigots to keep their accounts open and their hate to remain online'

Twitter removed just 11 per cent of the 137 posts flagged to them, with the anti-semitic hashtag 'holohoax' quite prevalent in tweets.

YouTube acted on 21 per cent of reported posts, while Instagram and TikTok on around 18 per cent.

Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, said 'social media companies allow bigots to keep their accounts open and their hate to remain online'.

He said: 'Social media has become a safe space for racists to normalise their conspiracies and hateful rhetoric without fear of consequences. 

'This is why social media is increasingly unsafe for Jewish people, just as it is becoming for women, black people, Muslims, LGBT people and many other groups.' 

And the Board of Deputies of British Jews president Marie van der Zyl said: 'This report's findings demonstrate unequivocally that the world's largest social media companies are repeatedly failing not just their Jewish users, but all Jews, online or offline, targeted by antisemitic hate transmitted via these platforms.

'Anti-Semitism, whether in the form of targeted abuse, conspiracy theories, or Holocaust denial and revisionism, is being allowed to spread almost entirely unchecked.

'We again urge social media companies to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism and use it to combat this bigotry.'