OHPI: ‘Normalisation of antisemitism’ in Australia
Report finds over half of analysed comments on London ambulance attack were antisemitic.
The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) released a report on Monday examining Australian responses to the attack on four Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green, London, on March 23, with its findings demonstrating “the normalisation of antisemitism in Australian society”.
The OHPI looked at a Facebook post by the Australian Financial Review (AFR) linking to their article about the attack, which stated, “Iranian sleeper cells ‘activated’ for London Jewish ambulance bombing”.
It found most people reacted with laughter to the news of the attack. An analysis of the first almost 600 comments showed that about 10 per cent had been removed by moderation, and of the remaining 523 comments over half were considered antisemitic.
“The nature of the antisemitic content was similar to what we saw after the Bondi attack, and after the attacks on synagogues in Melbourne. A dominant theme was that it was a ‘false flag’ attack and 30 per cent of all the comments (153 comments) claimed Israel (or specifically Mossad) was behind the attack.
A further four per cent of all the comments (22 comments) blamed the Jewish community itself for the attack,” OHPI stated.
The OHPI noted that despite reported links to Iran, there has been a social media campaign to shift the public perception of responsibility to Israel, which it believes is likely an Iranian disinformation campaign.
“Iranian-linked terrorism targeting Jewish communities around the world is routinely shielded from public backlash by Iranian disinformation campaigns. These campaigns, which immediately follow Iranian sponsored attacks, seek to frame Israel as being behind the attacks on Jewish communities,” OHPI stated.
The OHPI report noted: how “normalised blaming Israel and Jews for antisemitic attacks has become”; the lack of effective moderation in the comments on social media by Facebook and the page owner; as well as the use of “large scale disinformation campaigns” to invert responsibility and undermine empathy for Jewish communities under attack.
Its recommendations include: for Meta to reverse the scaling back of trust and safety efforts which has led to 70 per cent to 80 per cent reduction in hate speech removal; media and government staff tasked with moderating social media comments to turn off commenting when they are unable to properly moderate the incoming comments; staff responsible for moderation to be trained in recognising antisemitism; and a counter-strategy should be developed to address disinformation.
Dr Andre Oboler, CEO of the OHPI and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the La Trobe Law School commented, “The under 16 social media ban in Australia, now being considered by other countries, and the recent landmark court case in the US against Meta and Google, have shown that society is starting to get the harm that social media can pose, at least when it comes to children.
“We need to go further. It isn’t just children that unregulated social media is harming.
“It is contributing significantly to antisemitism in Australia and around the world, as well as to other forms of hate, a fact the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion needs to carefully consider.”