Anti-palestinian racism and incitement by Israelis on social media increased by 16% in 2020
The Arab Center for Social Media Advancement, 7amleh, said on Monday that anti-Palestinian racism and incitement by Israelis on social media has increased by 16 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.
In its annual report, Index of Racism and Incitement in Israeli Social Networks, 7amleh said that the results of racism and incitement in the Israeli social media index showed that about 574,000 posts on social media in 2020 included violent anti-Arab text, at a rate of one out of every 10 posts about Arabs containing violent speech, which is an increase by 79,000 posts compared to 2019 during which 495,000 violent posts were published.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the results showed that racist posts towards Palestinians and Arabs increased by 21 percent, while insults constituted 29 percent of the posts. Incitement speech constituted 7 percent.
The report said the Twitter platform topped the index where 61 percent of violent posts were published, which is more than doubled compared to 2019, while Facebook platform came second this year and had 19 percent of the post, a decrease of 20 percent compared to 2019.
7amleh is a non-profit organization that advocates for Palestinian digital rights.
7amleh’s mission is to create a safe, fair and free digital space for Palestinians. 7amleh studies and researches issues related to Palestinian digital rights, provides digital rights, digital activism and digital security capacity building opportunities to Palestinian activists and civil society, and manages local and international advocacy campaigns.
