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Hosting the 'Holohoax': a Snapshot of Holocaust Denial Across Social Media

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Hosting the 'Holohoax': a Snapshot of Holocaust Denial Across Social Media COVID-19 disinformation briefingISD Briefing No.2 HostingFar-right the m ‘Holohoax’obilisation 10th9th August April 2020 2020 COVIDHosting-19 the disinformation ‘Holohoax’: A Snapshotbriefing of Holocaust no. 2 Denial Across Social Media Far-rightJakob Guhl mobilisation & Jacob Davey This is the second in a series of briefings from ISD’s Digital Research Unit on the information ecosystem around coronavirus (COVID-19). These briefings expose how Executivetechnology platformsSummary are being used to promote disinformation, hate, extremism and authoritarianism in the context of COVID-19. It is based on ISD’s mixture of natural Overviewlanguage processing, network analysis and ethnographic online research. This briefing Holocaustfocuses denialon the has way long far-right been one groups of the most and insidious individuals conspiracy are mobilising theories targeting around Jewish COVID-19 in communities,the with US. its The extremist first proponents briefing drawnin the from series across can the be ideological found on spectrum, ISD’s website. from extreme right-wing to hard left to Islamist. Research has shown that digital platforms have only served to amplify and mainstream this warped strain of thinking inTop recent Lines years.1 Far-rightThis briefing groups paper andprovides individuals a snapshot are of Holocaust denialAntisemitic content acrossspeech major and social ideas media are beingplatforms. opportunisticallyBy analysing the term using ‘holohoax’, the ongoingwhich is commonly usedadapted by Holocaust to incorporate deniers, this COVID-19: paper examines the extent to which Holocaust denial content is readily accessible across Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and pandemic to advance their movements and YouTube. Although this study does not set out to provide• Olda comprehensive antisemitic tropes overview of ‘blood of the libel’ phenomenon, relating to itideologies: reveals important insights about how Facebook and Twitterfalse provideclaims of a homeritualistic to an sacrifice established are being and activefused •communityCOVID-19 isof an Holocaust increasingly deniers. important While Holocausttopic within denial withis present a wide on range Reddit, of conspiracy our research theories suggests which are thatfar-right such activitycommunities. has been Mentions reduced of through ‘corona-chan’, a combinationemerging of moderation around COVID-19.efforts and pushback from othera slang users. term This for paper COVID-19 also demonstratespopular with far-right how appropriately• This applieddiscussion content has grown moderation significantly policies can be effectivegroups andin denying individuals dangerous have increased conspiracy significantly theorists a publicthroughout platform the by pandemic.examining how Holocaust denial contentacross hasmainstream decreased and significantly fringe social in media the past year on YouTube. platforms. QAnon conspiracy theorists are Key Findings • COVID-19 is being used as a ‘wedge issue’ to capitalising on the pandemic: Ourpromote research conspiracy illustrates theories, how target Holocaust minority denial content is readily accessible across communities, and call for extreme violence. • QAnon influencers are using the pandemic to Facebook, Reddit and Twitter: increase their reach online. COVID-19• We identified is being 36 Facebook used to pagesadvance and groups,calls which• areProponents either specifically of the far-right dedicated QAnon to conspiracy Holocaust theory are advancing a wide range of different fordenial the ‘boogaloo’ or which host – anHolocaust extreme denial right-wing content. The pages and groups investigated were ideologically diverse, with 9 hosting extreme-right communities, 7 anti-Zionistnarratives off communities, the back of 13the conspiracyCOVID-19 pandemic, meme referring to an impending civil war: theorist communities, 5 pro-Palestine communities, 1including an Islamist the community idea that the and pandemic 1 a Christian is being • Whilecommunity. some of these calls appear to be ironic, orchestrated to manipulate US politics; is a others should be recognised as legitimate security bioweapon; that there is a hidden cure for the • The Facebook pages and groups have a combined number of followers of 366,068 and an average threats. virus; and that it is being utilised to implement number of members of 10,168. • Discussions of the ‘boogaloo’ are increasingly martial law. • pivotingWe also towardsidentified the 2,300 ways thepieces COVID-19 of content mentioning ‘holohoax’ on Reddit, 19,000 pieces of content on pandemicTwitter, and provides 9,500 piecesan opportunity of content for on violence. YouTube, all created between 1 June 2018 and 22 July 2020. • This conversation is taking place across Ourmainstream analysis and highlights fringe social how media. Holocaust denial content is actively recommended through Facebook’s• This trend has algorithm: already manifested into real-world violence, with one alleged white supremacist • terroristUsing a dying‘snowball’ after discovery shootouts method with the we FBI. found that when a user follows public pages containing Holocaust denial content, Facebook actively promotes further Holocaust denial content to that user. www.isdglobal.org www.isdglobal.orgPO Box 75769 | London | SW1P 9ERPO |Box UK 75769 | London | SW1P 9ER | UK 1 COVID-19 disinformation briefingISD Briefing No.2 HostingFar-right the m ‘Holohoax’obilisation Shifts in a platform’s terms of service9th are Aprileffective 2020 at limiting the spread of Holocaust denial content: • By analysing the useCOVID of the term ‘holohoax’-19 we disinformation found that the spread of Holocaust denial content dropped significantly on YouTube following changes to their terms of service in 2019. If other platforms adopt similar policies then this wouldbriefing likely limit the spread no. of such 2 material. • While the number of posts on Reddit mentioning the term ‘holohoax’ has not decreased over the past two years, there are a number of factors that limit the visibility of Holocaust denial on Reddit, such as banning of subreddits dedicated to Holocaust denial, moderators deleting comments and pushback from other users. Far-right mobilisation BackgroundThis is the second in a series of briefings from ISD’s Digital Research Unit on the Holocaustinformation denial isecosystem discourse which around seeks coronavirus to deny the reality (COVID-19). and extent Theseof the genocide briefings of the expose Jews by how thetechnology Nazis in World platforms War II.2 Such are discourse being used has been to promoteused since thedisinformation, 1940s as a means hate, of attacking extremism Jews. and Contemporary Holocaust denial is propagated by individuals adhering to a range of extremist world views includingauthoritarianism the extreme right in theand hardcontext left, ofand COVID-19.has become interwovenIt is based withon ISD’sa number mixture of antisemitic of natural conspiracylanguage theories. processing, This speech network seeks analysis not only to and minimise ethnographic the suffering online of Jews research. during the ThisHolocaust, briefing but tofocuses mitigate oncriticism the way of Nazism, far-right and justifygroups ongoing and individuals attacks against are the mobilising Jewish people. around Due to COVID-19 the intimate in intersection thebetween US. TheHolocaust first denialbriefing and hatein thetargeting series Jews, can such be contentfound shouldon ISD’s be regardedwebsite. as inherently antisemitic.3 The legal status of Holocaust denial activities differsTop Linesmarkedly across global contexts, as well as in the different terms of use of private technology companies dealing with user-generated content. Holocaust denialFar-right is illegal groups in a number and individuals of European are countries, Austria,Antisemitic Belgium, the speech Czech Republic, and ideas France, are Germany,being Liechtenstein,opportunistically Lithuania, using the theNetherlands, ongoing Poland, Romania,adapted Slovakia, to incorporateSpain and Switzerland, COVID-19: as well as in Israel. The enforcement of these laws differs between contexts.4 Holocaust denial is protected from pandemic to advance their movements and Old antisemitic tropes of ‘blood libel’ relating to prosecution in the US. • ideologies: false claims of ritualistic sacrifice are being fused with a wide range of conspiracy theories which are The• COVID-19 policies isof an private increasingly social media important companies, topic within many of which are based in the US, diverge on actions emerging around COVID-19. takenfar-right against communities. Holocaust denial.Mentions Facebook of ‘corona-chan’, and Twitter do not specifically act against content and those This discussion has grown significantly promotinga slang term Holocaust for COVID-19 denial. popularAt its heart, with this far-right approach is• based on a conceptual blind-spot, whereby platformsgroups and understand individuals Holocaust have increased denial as significantly a debate simplythroughout over facts – the a problem pandemic. for misinformation andacross disinformation mainstream teams and fringeto handle. social This media perception ignores the fact that Holocaust denial is a form of antisemiticplatforms. hate speech, as well as a form of disinformation.QAnon Despite conspiracy having hate theorists speech policies are in place that• COVID-19 ban content is being that used directly as a attacks‘wedge peopleissue’ to for having anycapitalising protected characteristics,on the pandemic: which
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