Gab as Disseminator of Antisemitic Conspiracy Myths and Enabler of Offline Violence
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Marc Hermann-Cohen
Abstract
While there are increasing moves by mainstream social media platforms to control far-right activity as well as the prevalence of hate speech such as antisemitism, such regulation has in turn fueled the rise of platforms dedicated to being “bastions” of free speech where regardless of its content, discourse seems completely uncontrolled-one such platform is Gab. This paper seeks to chart the rise of Gab as a location for unrestrained antisemitic conspiracy myths and to demonstrate that there is a spillover of such online discourse into real-world criminal action. In order to do so, the paper’s aims are fourfold: to overview current research on online antisemitism and the role of Gab in it; it will look at cases where online hate was taken offline; it will examine what makes the role of Gab unique in this regard and how conspiracy theories find an open house there; and it will examine the Gab Dissenter, a browser extension that facilitates the circumvention of normal moderation. Ultimately, the paper strives to answer whether Gab serves as an enabler for offline antisemitic violence by allowing and even inviting conspiracy theories on its platform.
© 2022 by Academic Studies Press
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Contents
- Editorial
- Theme Editorial
- THEME ARTICLES: ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS OF RUSSIAN ANTIZIONISM: SOME CONTEXT FOR TODAY’S PROPAGANDA OPERATION AGAINST UKRAINE
- Demonization Blueprints: Soviet Conspiracist Antizionism in Contemporary Left-Wing Discourse
- Durban Antizionism: Its Sources, Its Impact, and Its Relation to Older Anti-Jewish Ideologies
- GENERAL ARTICLES
- The Generalised Antisemitism (GeAs) Scale: A Questionnaire Instrument for Measuring Antisemitism as Expressed in Relation Both to Jews and to Israel
- How Users of British Media Websites Make a Bogeyman of George Soros
- Surging, Stable, or Subdued: The Jewish Perception of Antisemitism in Canada’s Southernmost Region
- Does Academic Freedom Protect Antisemitism?—Part II: Social Media, Antizionism, and the End of Academic Freedom
- Gab as Disseminator of Antisemitic Conspiracy Myths and Enabler of Offline Violence
- The Mainstreaming of American Antisemitism: The Defeat of an Ideal
- RESEARCH NOTE
- The Decoding Antisemitism Project—Reflections, Methods, and Goals
- IN MEMORIAM: PETE NEWBON, 1983–2022
- In Memory of Pete Newbon
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism. Edited by Sol Goldberg, Scott Ury, and Kalman Weiser. London: Palgrave, 2021. 354 pages. $29.99.
- Why Do People Discriminate against Jews?
- The Holocaust and North Africa
- Looking for an Enemy: 8 Essays on Antisemitism
- Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Faculty Campaign against the Jewish State
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Contents
- Editorial
- Theme Editorial
- THEME ARTICLES: ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS OF RUSSIAN ANTIZIONISM: SOME CONTEXT FOR TODAY’S PROPAGANDA OPERATION AGAINST UKRAINE
- Demonization Blueprints: Soviet Conspiracist Antizionism in Contemporary Left-Wing Discourse
- Durban Antizionism: Its Sources, Its Impact, and Its Relation to Older Anti-Jewish Ideologies
- GENERAL ARTICLES
- The Generalised Antisemitism (GeAs) Scale: A Questionnaire Instrument for Measuring Antisemitism as Expressed in Relation Both to Jews and to Israel
- How Users of British Media Websites Make a Bogeyman of George Soros
- Surging, Stable, or Subdued: The Jewish Perception of Antisemitism in Canada’s Southernmost Region
- Does Academic Freedom Protect Antisemitism?—Part II: Social Media, Antizionism, and the End of Academic Freedom
- Gab as Disseminator of Antisemitic Conspiracy Myths and Enabler of Offline Violence
- The Mainstreaming of American Antisemitism: The Defeat of an Ideal
- RESEARCH NOTE
- The Decoding Antisemitism Project—Reflections, Methods, and Goals
- IN MEMORIAM: PETE NEWBON, 1983–2022
- In Memory of Pete Newbon
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism. Edited by Sol Goldberg, Scott Ury, and Kalman Weiser. London: Palgrave, 2021. 354 pages. $29.99.
- Why Do People Discriminate against Jews?
- The Holocaust and North Africa
- Looking for an Enemy: 8 Essays on Antisemitism
- Israel Denial: Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Faculty Campaign against the Jewish State
