“How Extremists Are Using Coronavirus to Advance Racist, Conspiratorial Agendas”
Thursday, March 19 — 2:30-3:15 PM ETYou will hear from Oren Segal, who leads our Center on Extremism. Oren and his team have been seeing alarming messages on fringe social media platforms, linking the Coronavirus to racist and antisemitic slurs, and cheering on the spread of the virus in Israel and in predominantly non-white countries. As one post on 4chan said, “Send the sick to Israel — if you already die at least take out as many Jews as you can.” (Read the ADL coverage of this.) The ranting on the fringes is now being echoed on mainstream platforms that are stirring up hate, with accusations that the virus is a hoax, a plot by the pharma industry or a weapon in some geopolitical plan. |
