Diaspora Ministry Unveils System for Tracking Online Anti-Semitism
Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Diaspora Ministry unveiled on Thursday what it said was new technology for detecting anti-Semitic content on the internet.
The software, called the Anti-Semitism Cyber Monitoring System, or ACMS, is “the most advanced development in the world for monitoring anti-Semitism in real time,” the ministry said in a statement.
According to the ministry, the ACMS tracks anti-Semitic posts on social media and can detect how widely they’ve been shared, who is sharing them, and which cities and countries produce the most anti-Semitic content.
The system uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism when scanning for content, and will initially monitor posts in English, Arabic, French and German on Facebook and Twitter before expanding to other platforms and languages.
In addition to the system itself, the ministry will operate a “war room” to analyze the anti-Semitic posts and will share the content with internet companies so they can be removed.
During a month-long trial of the ACMS, the ministry said it detected a total of 409,000 anti-Semitic posts by 30,000 users.
The ministry said the three “most anti-Semitic cities” were Santiago, Chile; Dnipro, Ukraine; and Bucharest, Romania. The cities in Western countries with the most anti-Semitic posts were Paris and London, according to the ministry.
Praising the system, Diaspora Affairs Ministry Naftali Bennett said it would expose online anti-Semites “for all to see.”
“The time has come to put a mirror in front of our haters and expose the ugly face of modern anti-Semitism,” he said. “From now on we’ll know who every anti-Semitic inciter is.”
Bennett also said “anti-Semitism hasn’t disappeared, it changed its shape and moved from the street to the internet.”
“Especially during the week we mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we must expose and shine a spotlight on the sources of anti-Semitic incitement,” said Bennett.
