How Online Became The New Frontline In The Fight Against Race Hate

‘Why weren’t you sent to the gas chambers too?’ Like many Jews in Britain, I faced an early awakening to the reality that some people really do hate us. For me it was in secondary school, where a boy in my class – whose name is seared into my memory forever – would taunt me with this sickening question.

Fast forward to 2020, and I’ve never forgotten how that racist bullying made me feel. As President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, at least these days I have a platform to speak out about such abuse, but sometimes the sheer scale of the hatred still does depress me, especially when I log on to social media.

Perhaps for that reason, I’m always looking for good news to balance out the bad, and so I welcomed writer Stephanie Yeboah’s unreserved apology, after her previous antisemitic tweets came to light. I firmly believe that most prejudice comes from ignorance. If someone is willing to say sorry, and educate themselves, then they ought to have a second chance to right that wrong.

Social media isn’t all bad, of course. Whether its connecting with long lost friends on Facebook, getting some style tips on Instagram or joining an important campaign on Twitter, these online channels can enhance our lives in untold ways – especially this year, when meeting up with friends and family has been so difficult.

And online platforms have the power to do so much good. In recent months, my organisation, like so many others, has used Zoom, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to bring together many groups of people who might otherwise not have met. We’ve hosted discussions about anti-Black racism with Black Jews, and on climate change with experts in that field.

But, as anyone who has spent any amount of time on social media knows, online is becoming the new frontline in the fight against race hate.

According to the Community Security Trust, a charity that protects British Jews, 39% of antisemitic incidents recorded in 2019 occurred online, with that number rising to 43.6% of incidents in the first six months of this year.

Of course, it’s not just Jews facing this hatred. Muslims and Black people often face appalling racist abuse on these platforms, reflective of systematic racism in wider society. And if you’re a woman, the abuse we face often has misogyny thrown in too. Jewish women politicians have experienced some of the worst of this, both from neo-Nazis, and far-left trolls too.

The social media companies have been slow to act. Grime artist Wiley broadcast a 48-hour long series of anti-Jewish posts and videos across all his social media accounts, before he was stopped. Likewise, Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson served up huge amounts of Islamophobia on Facebook and Twitter. Again, they were eventually banned, but not until millions of people had been subjected to their vile rants.

There has been some significant progress this week. Facebook have finally banned Holocaust denial on its platform. But all too often, when someone makes a complaint about racism to one of these companies, the response is still, ‘This does not violate our community standards’. We even got this response when we reported a bomb threat on our own office.

So far, social media companies have been reluctant to sort this out of their own accord, which is why we believe the Government needs to take action. Through the upcoming Online Harms Bill, due to reach Parliament this Autumn, the Government has an unparalleled opportunity to act.

By embracing people who turn their backs on hate, and making social media companies clamp down hard on those who remain committed to racism, we can slowly turn the tide and make social media – and perhaps even the ‘real world’ – a safer space for all, no matter their gender, faith, ethnicity or sexuality.

Marie van der Zyl is the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews