Rage Against The Algorithms Summoning The Global Anti-Jew Intifada!

Algorithmically augmented anti-Jew hate speech is a clear and present danger to American Jews and must be stopped.

Jews in America are deeply worried about their safety. Energized by algorithmic force multipliers, vociferous calls to “globalize the intifada” flowing from Black Saturday (10/7) supporters[1] have metastasized into anti-Jew murders and terrorist plots for mass murder–even targeting Jewish children at the holidays by poisoning candy.[2] Jews need to meet the moment and defang online media and information distribution systems to enforce their rights to be free of thuggish intimidation and incitement to outright violence.

The danger posed by calls for a global anti-Jew intifada is clear and present.[3] The killer of two young people in front of the Jewish Museum in Washington DC didn’t really need to parade his heinous crime by chanting “free, free Palestine”.[4] We know he was out to kill Jews.[5] Soon afterwards, on June 1, 2025, a brutal attacker yelling “free Palestine” used a makeshift flamethrower to burn Jews at a Boulder, Colorado, parade in honor of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. These attacks on American streets came as the U.S. extradited the leader of an international White Supremacist Group ‘Maniac Murder Cult’ who had traveled to Brooklyn to solicit the bombing and poisoning of the Jewish Community in New York City.[6] Iran is also targeting Jewish and Israeli individuals abroad, as underlined by U.S. sanctions imposed in May against a Swedish gang used by Iran to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe, and the U.K. arrest of Iranian men plotting an attack on the Israeli Embassy in London.[7] 

Thirty years ago (1994), a Lebanese immigrant, Rashid Baz (יש”ו), shot up a van full of Jewish children crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, murdering 16-year-old Ari Halberstam (ז״ל). Baz confessed: “I only shot them because they were Jewish.”[8] Ari’s mother, Deborah, worked tirelessly to have her son’s murder classified as a terrorist incident,[9] leading to the first New York state laws to counter terrorism.[10] These laws are significant because they allow police to intervene early to prevent and disrupt threats, not just respond after the fact.[11] But more is needed, because this time is different.

American Jews need to forcefully maintain their rights to be free from algorithmically augmented anti-Jew hate speech that deprives them of safety and security.[12] Traditional appeals to neither morality nor liberal sensibility will do the job. In the face of escalating Jew-hatred, American Jews need to meet head-on the algorithmic engines of hate that summon terrorist acts against them, as these systems guide people into a paranoid state of being by amplifying obsessive and incessant streams of antisemitic lies and vilification. The resulting violence against Jews that is undeniable.[13] There have been more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. since Black Saturday, and a more than 200% increase in the one-year period since then. 

It is important to know that this is not a case of technology running amok. It is the intentional result of system design and development.[14] According to Matthew Williams, author of “The Science of Hate” and professor of criminology at Cardiff University, hate speech racks up a lot of engagement due to the evolved human proclivity to identify threats.”[15] Because outrageous content creates the most engagement, users–spurred on by “dopamine hits”–feel more encouraged to post hateful content.[16] To capture and expand the audience, online platforms leverage algorithms that curate and drive content that is optimized for engagement (views, likes, shares, comments) by triggering rapid-fire emotions related to fight-or-flight responses and other high-stakes interactions.[17]

Compounding the problem, the global growth of onstream platforms means that “millions living in countries where antisemitic assumptions are the default and even taught in public education are now interacting with American and Western publics directly.”[18] As a result, anti-Jew hate speech is globally superdistributed and cannot be stopped unless, says Williams, “humans step in to adjust the algorithm.”

To protect Jewish rights and personal security, Jews need to renew and get behind calls for Congress to sundown the law that shields online platforms from liability for surging the anti-Jew hate speech that is inciting violence and worse. While Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act was arguably intended to maintain America’s competitive edge in Cyberspace, it was championed with false promises that it would allow online platforms to develop the filtering technology needed to protect vulnerable communities (e.g., children from explicit and exploitative imagery).[19] Instead, it ended up giving us a business model dependent upon engaging and holding attention. The results are perverse economic incentives that promote hate speech, effectively suppress good speech, and eliminate the possibility of thoughtful discourse. 

The conventional wisdom may be that repeal of Section 230 would encourage online platforms to censor constitutionally-protected speech in order to avoid potential lawsuits. But ending Section 230 protection does not present a binary choice between “unchecked viral harassment and heavy-handed censorship.”[20] Legal scholars point out that Section 230 immunity extends beyond protections provided by the First Amendment and is not required by it. 

A fundamental principle behind the First Amendment is the expectation that the answer for bad speech is more good speech. But in our algorithmic world, we already have more than enough proof that good speech cannot win out. In fact, good speech may only be able to do the trick if algorithms are restrained to level the playing field so as to preserve the free competition of ideas. Further, just as the First Amendment does not protect someone shouting “fire” in a crowded theater, operators of algorithms that incentivize anti-Jew hate speech for commercial benefit should face the consequences. 

Support is also needed to compel algorithmic accountability to ensure that online platforms constantly assess and mitigate the risks they pose. For transparency, social media companies should be required to publish regular reports detailing the incidence of hate speech on their platforms and the effectiveness of actions to combat it.[21] Additionally, because of the potential impact on fundamental rights and safety, online platforms should be required to employ vigorous human oversight and undertake rigorous algorithmic model validation to minimize the dispersion of hate speech.[22] 

Jews need to pick up the baton from the mother of the 16-year-old Jewish boy murdered in a school van on the Brooklyn Bridge. At the time, “many in this country…were silent [and] afraid to acknowledge that terrorism exists, that antisemitism was alive and breathing.” Today, we know better and are facing an exponential increase in the bloodthirsty anti-Jew hatred that drove that child’s killer. Deborah Halberstam implores the brave to stand up, take action, and “never, ever give up the fight.”[23] Even If we don’t have the tools to eliminate antisemitism, we can rage against and defang the algorithms to stop them from flooding the online zone with content that normalizes anti-Jew hatred and fuels the violence we are witnessing on U.S. streets and campuses.

Endnotes

1. Cf., Who are the Primary Groups Behind the U.S. Anti-Israel Rallies?, ADL (Nov. 8, 2023), https://www.adl.org/resources/article/who-are-primary-groups-behind-us-anti-israel-rallies; J. Marzouk, Hamas sympathizers are abusing and trampling over the First Amendment, Orange County Register (April 13, 2024), https://www.ocregister.com/2024/04/13/hamas-sympathizers-are-abusing-and-trampling-over-the-first-amendment/
2. Georgian National Extradited from Moldova to Face Charges for Soliciting Hate Crimes and Planning Mass Casualty Attack in New York City, U.S. D.O.J. (May 23, 2025), https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/georgian-national-extradited-moldova-face-charges-soliciting-hate-crimes-and-planning-mass
3. Cf., D. Diker, The Washington Embassy Murders: Hamas’s October 7th Invasion of America, Jerusalem Center for Security & Foreign Affairs (May 28, 2025), https://jcpa.org/the-washington-embassy-murders-hamass-october-7th-invasion-of-america/
4. See, Chilling moment Elias Rodriguez screams ‘Free Palestine’, Daily Mail (May 22, 2025), https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hVnJ3l6enY8
5. K. Patel, https://x.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1925580650381238714 ; P. Thomas et al., 2 Israeli Embassy staffers killed in ‘act of terror’ in Washington, DC, ABC News (May 22, 2025), https://abcnews.go.com/US/2-shot-fbi-field-office-washington-dc/story?id=122059162
6. Georgian National Extradited from Moldova to Face Charges for Soliciting Hate Crimes and Planning Mass Casualty Attack in New York City, U.S. D.O.J., https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/georgian-national-extradited-moldova-face-charges-soliciting-hate-crimes-and-planning-mass
7. See, M. Rubio, Sanctioning the Foxtrot Network, U.S. Dept. State (March 12, 2025), https://www.state.gov/sanctioning-the-foxtrot-network/; M. Colchester & S. Rasmussen, U.K. Police Foil Alleged Terror Plot by Iranians on Israeli Embassy, Wall S. J. (May 8, 2025), https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-k-police-foil-terror-plot-by-iranians-on-israeli-embassy-9e89302e?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=ASWzDAgZXhk9OaeUxSB5DgLb_fZngJ7BwktrPujxs6nKDa0v2ReRbd12VHeO9FQpl-A%3D&gaa_ts=68388261&gaa_sig=1HttP0xGyMN5-Qcs2quqrpzNRuwdVihgT0mgaeeSsYV-jOkvVuG-wucGSquRNYidmONuQXnPD04iL22cgFf9yg%3D%3D; Counter Terrorism Policing: Arrests, U.K. Parliament (Hansard May 7, 2025), https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-05-07/debates/3CBB9122-44BB-4FC7-9994-EF0EB8C16963/CounterTerrorismPolicingArrests
8. See, L. Celona, Killer: Jews my target, NY Post (March 26, 2012), https://nypost.com/2012/03/26/killer-jews-my-target/#ixzz1r2UnKrQS
9. For five years, the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department failed to classify this shooting as an act of terror, allowing it to be viewed instead as a case of “road rage.” See, B. Harpaz, The untold story of the worst attack on Jews in NYC history: Was there a conspiracy?, Forward (June 2, 2024), https://forward.com/news/629361/devorah-halberstam-ari-brooklyn-bridge-shooting/
10. See, 2009 Director’s Community Leadership Awards – New York – Deborah Halberstam, FBI, https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/about-us/partnerships_and_outreach/community_outreach/dcla/2009/newyork
11. Cf., K. Hochuk, Executive Order 18 – Preventing and Responding to Domestic Terrorism, New York State (May 18, 2022), https://www.governor.ny.gov/executive-order/no-18-preventing-and-responding-domestic-terrorism
12. Cf., L. M. v. Town of Middleborough, Massachusetts, 103 F.4th 854 (1st Cir. 2024),  https://adfmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/LM-AppellateRuling.pdf, Cert. Denied (May 27, 2025), 605 U. S. ____ (2025).
13. Cf., S. Lewandowsky & A. Kozyreva, Algorithms, Lies, and Social Media, OpenMind (Dec. 15, 2022), https://www.openmindmag.org/articles/algorithms-lies-and-social-media; A. Singer, The Negative Effects of Social Media Algorithms, Penn StateU. (Thesis, Spring 2022), https://honors.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/8388; S. Awasthi, From clicks to chaos: How social media algorithms amplify extremism, ORF (Feb.13, 2025), https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/from-clicks-to-chaos-how-social-media-algorithms-amplify-extremism
14. See, L. Munn, Angry by design: toxic communication and technical architectures, Nature (July 30, 2020), https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00550-7
15. J. Guynn & W. Carless, From Nazi propaganda to Holocaust denial, social media is pushing hate on users: study, USA Today (April 17, 2023), https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/08/17/antisemitism-on-social-media-rising/70605213007/
16. See, J. Brown, Former Facebook Exec: ‘You Don’t Realize It But You Are Being Programmed’, Gizmodo (Dec. 11, 2017), https://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-exec-you-don-t-realize-it-but-you-are-1821181133
17. See, J. Lanier & A. Stanger, The One Internet Hack That Could Save Everything, Wired (Feb. 13, 2024), https://www.wired.com/story/the-one-internet-hack-that-could-save-everything-section-230
18. According to Noa Tishby, “Chinese-owned TikTok, in particular, has been a primary vector for the spread of antisemitic ideas and content. See, N. Tishby, How Social Media Stokes Antisemitism and What We Can Do About It, ABA Human Rights Magazine (Dec. 2024), https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/resources/human-rights/2024-december/how-social-media-stokes-antisemitism/
19. “The statute was meant to nurture emerging internet businesses while also incentivizing them to regulate harmful online content.”, Section 230 — Nurturing Innovation or Fostering Unaccountability?, U.S. DOJ (June 2020), https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1072971/dl?inline=; “Congress intended this statute to provide limited protection to internet service providers based on their representation that this would empower platforms to protect children and families. This experiment has failed in large part because after making such promises, those tech companies embarked on an effort to expand this immunity and disempower and endanger children.” Cf., M. Graw Leary, COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY ACT: HOW IT FACILITATES EXPLOITATION AND HOW IT MUST BE REFORMED, Villanova L. Rev., Vol. 70, Iss. 1 (April 3  ,2025), https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3672&context=vlr
20. Cf., A. Stanger et al., Sunset and Renew: Section 230 Should Protect Human Speech, Not Algorithmic Virality, Ash Center for Democratic Governance & Innovation (Oct. 30, 2024), https://ash.harvard.edu/articles/sunset-and-renew-section-230-should-protect-human-speech-not-algorithmic-virality/
21. Cf., P. Rottger et al., HATECHECK: Functional Tests for Hate Speech Detection Model, in Proceedings of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 11th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (Volume 1: Long Papers, 2021), https://aclanthology.org/2021.acl-long.4.pdf; D. Kikkisetti et al., Using LLMs to discover emerging coded antisemitic hate-speech in extremist social media, arXiv:2401.10841v2 [cs.CL] 23 Jan 2024, https://arxiv.org/html/2401.10841v2/#S6
22. Cf., R. Prabhu & V. Seethalakshmi, A comprehensive framework for multi-modal hate speech detection in social media using deep learning, Sci Rep 15, 13020 (2025), https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-94069-z

Transcript: Mayor Adams Delivers Remarks At 30th Anniversary Commemoration Of Death Of Ari Halberstam, March 1, 2024, City of New York, https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/160-24/transcript-mayor-adams-delivers-remarks-30th-anniversary-commemoration-death-ari