Anti-Defamation League CEO: Ye's Stunt Exposed Tech Platforms' Antisemitism Problem

Yahoo

5 days ago

Our culture has long been vulnerable to celebrities and influencers who popularize hate. From Father Charles Coughlin in the 1930s to Mel Gibson in the 2000s, each has taken advantage of their platform to spread conspiracy theories or antisemitic tropes to the masses.
But the rapper and internet celebrity Kanye West, or 'Ye,' remains in a category all his own. Unlike others before him, Ye has never tried to mask his hatred of Jews or couch his beliefs in timeworn antisemitic conspiracy theories. While he once seemingly attempted an apology to the Jewish community, Ye has doubled and tripled down on his antisemitic rants – again and again and again. Ye, who makes no secret of his hatred for the Jewish people, infamously threatened to go 'death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.' His latest apology, issued last week, came as a short burst of tweets less than 9 hours after an antisemitic extremist gunned down a young couple outside of the Capital Jewish Museum.
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'I'm done with antisemitism,' he wrote. But I'm not buying it. Ye's pattern of recidivist antisemitism has continued since 2022, so no one should be surprised by his latest antisemitic stunt: the release of a new music video, outrageously titled 'Heil Hitler,' and companion song titled 'WW3,' which glorified the architect of the Holocaust and dredged up a few more antisemitic tropes for good measure.
What's worse? Thanks to the power of technology, literally millions of people streamed the new song as it made the rounds — predictably and virally — on social media platforms like Spotify and SoundCloud. While Ye's Hitler-glorifying lyrics stood in clear violation of their policies against hate speech, most social platforms failed to act when the video first hit their algorithms. Some, shamefully, still haven't acted at all.
This inertia has consequences. When phrases like 'Heil Hitler' are made more popular, our cultural safeguards against overt antisemitism crumble and the guardrails against other forms of hate give way.
Ye's descent into Hitler fandom isn't happening in a vacuum. With antisemitic beliefs already at their highest levels in decades, and with Jewish communities around the world facing a tsunami of antisemitic harassment and vandalism, especially post-Oct. 7, his comments about Jews and praise for Hitler are reaching a younger, more susceptible audience. A recent ADL survey found that 46 percent of the world's adult population harbor deeply entrenched antisemitic attitudes, more than double compared to just a decade ago. And in a startling shift from previous findings, U.S. polling data in 2024 revealed that millennials and members of Generation Z are more likely to harbor antisemitic tropes than older Americans.
Social media grants to unhinged antisemites, racists and bigots like Ye the kind of massive global audience that Hitler's propaganda minister Josef Goebbels could only have imagined. To put this into perspective, Ye has 33.5 million followers on X (formerly Twitter); the global Jewish population currently is estimated at 15.8 million. The damage that's being done by these powerful high-tech companies as they attempt to grapple with problems they themselves created is immeasurable.
This moment is made even worse by the backsliding of certain platforms like X and Meta on their approaches to addressing antisemitism. Meta no longer proactively removes hate speech without first receiving a user report. Mark Zuckerberg has called this 'a trade-off.' I would call it an abdication.
Protections that were in place several years ago and could have mitigated the reach of something as vile as Ye's 'Heil Hitler' have been dismantled on these prominent platforms. We've seen the results in the data: Jewish members of Congress have faced a nearly fivefold increase in antisemitic harassment on Facebook since the start of the year, thanks most likely to the controversial changes to Meta's moderation policies in January. Our latest report card gave X an 'F' for how it handled reports of obvious and explicit antisemitic content. These kinds of changes create an online environment for antisemitism to not only survive but thrive on these platforms.
Released on May 8, which was also the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat, Ye's Hitler video has racked up an eye-popping 10 million views on X as of this writing. Meanwhile, Spotify only took down the song following public pressure but has yet to answer for allowing major podcasts to platform Holocaust deniers and amplify virulent antisemites. Another pro-Nazi song from Ye, 'WW3,' still remains available on the platform.
As a result, the hardcore bigots are taking a victory lap. Far-right influencers shared the video on their pages. Andrew Tate, the prominent far-right misogynist, posted a video of himself playing the song in his car. That video currently has more than three million views. Social platforms that cater to teenagers and potentially even younger children should make every effort to protect users from experiencing harassment and hate speech.
Ye's song comes at a time when knowledge about the history of the Holocaust is fading. An estimated one in five survey respondents, said in a recent poll that they are unaware of the Holocaust; less than half recognize its historical accuracy. There's no doubt his words and actions have consequences. In 2022, ADL documented at least 30 antisemitic incidents that directly referenced Ye after his antisemitic outbursts made headlines.
It took a decade just to get Facebook to recognize it had a Holocaust denial problem. Social media companies need to stop backsliding on their responsibility to fight hate today. They must step up, before it is too late.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt is CEO and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League.
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