The world was recently shocked at the news of a sudden, drastic surge in online anti-Semitism, sparked by some tweets made by Tesla CEO and tech billionaire Elon Musk. Mr. Musk had tweeted a link to a two-year-old video that had been edited to paint him as a victim of a conspiracy involving Jews.
The video was quickly pulled offline due to its anti-Semitic content, and Mr. Musk apologized for the mistake as well as the traction the video had gained. But while the video was removed, the wave of anti-Semitism and hate that had been stirred up in its wake had already begun to spread rapidly, with many commentators referring to it as a ‘supercharge’ of anti-Jewish sentiment.
It has since been discovered that the video had been originally released in 2019 by an anti-Semitic troll, who was aiming to rile people up and spread discord, quickly becoming the focus of much of the online hate directed at Jews.
This sudden surge in anti-Semitism online, while shocking, shouldn’t be surprising, given the way hate is quickly spread and amplified on social media platforms where trolls can run rampant and hide in plain sight. This is particularly relevant when it comes to digital spaces dominated by the alt-right, where anti-Semitism is a tragically common occurrence.
While much of this distressed reaction is about more than just the success and influence of Elon Musk, his part in it serves as an important learning experience about the unique power of tech moguls like him. Unfortunately, it’s not difficult to see how one seemingly careless social media post can quickly turn into a supercharged engine of hate.
What can be done to stop this kind of online hate? In the short-term, better education must be provided, to ensure that everyone is aware of the potential consequences of the words they say and publish online. In the long-term, existing laws about hate speech must be properly enforced and we must work together to remove hateful content from the internet.
If we don’t take responsibility for what happens online, then incidents like this one will continue to happen, and the consequences will be far-reaching and devastating.