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New report: 170,000 antisemitic Google searches made in Britain each year

Other data revealed showed there was a 79 percent rise in such searches the day after Jeremy Corbyn met Jewish communal leaders last year

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Around 170,000 Google searches with antisemitic content are made every year in the UK - around around ten percent of which involve violent language or intentions - a new report has revealed.

Using Google search data from 2004 to 2018, the report by the CST and Antisemitism Policy Trust also showed that Britain ranks third in the world for searches about “Zionism”, behind only Israel and Lebanon – 29 percent higher than in the US.

Searches for the word in the UK rose 25-fold in April 2016, after Ken Livingstone made comments about “Hitler supporting Zionism”. “Hitler Zionism” is the fourth most popular search about Zionism in Britain.

Other data, focused on different parts of the country, showed that antisemitic searches are just as high in cities that mostly vote Labour as they are in cities that mostly vote Conservative, and that antisemitic searches are higher in Wales than any other part of the UK.

The report also identified specific days or times when the volume of antisemitic searches rose sharply.

There was a 79 percent rise in antisemitic Google searches in April 2018, most of which occurred on the day after Jewish community representatives met Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

In another example, each year, on Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27), searches for “Holocaust hoax” are roughly 30 percent above average.

And in the days following Israel’s victory in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, antisemitic searches increased by 30 percent.

The report was written by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, the New York Times best-selling author of Everybody Lies: What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are.

It showed that in the UK, there are more Google searches into the Rothschild banking family than for top Jewish celebrities such as David Baddiel or Tracy-Ann Oberman.

Most of these searches are looking for conspiracy theories related to the Rothschild domination of the world.

The report found that searches for the Rothschilds have risen 39 per cent in the past three years. Moreover, in months when searches for information on the Rothschild family increase, other antisemitic searches also increase in number

It discovered that the top negative stereotypes searched for in relation to Jews are that they are “evil” and “racist.” It also found that the most common antisemitic Google searches in the United Kingdom are for jokes mocking Jews – and that there is a direct correlation between these searches and those mocking other minorities: someone who searches for “Jew jokes” is 100 times more likely to also search for “n***** jokes”.

The report found that, of the more than 9,000 threads on the site Stormfront related to feminism, 60 percent also mention Jews.

The two Jewish parliamentarians with the most mentions on the siteare Margaret Hodge and Luciana Berger. In the far-right site’s history, there have been 14 percent more mentions of female Jewish MPs than male Jewish MPs, but UK male Jewish celebrities are mentioned more than UK female Jewish celebrities.

Regarding Luciana Berger, the Jewish Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, the report found that there are more searches in Google for “Luciana Berger Jew” than for “Luciana Berger policy”, “Luciana Berger votes” or “Luciana Berger Brexit.”

Dave Rich, head of policy for CST, said: “The internet provides answers to every question anybody might ask, and that includes antisemites asking how to kill Jews or conspiracy theorists wondering whether it is true that the Holocaust didn’t happen.

“Search engines and internet companies have a responsibility to ensure that people asking these questions are directed away from hateful content and towards material that might challenge their prejudices.”

Danny Stone, chief executive of the Antisemitism Policy Trust, said: “Google has made it a lot easier for us to see what people are looking for behind closed doors. It’s certainly interesting but in this case, it’s also frightening.

“In a world where people are increasingly reliant on the web for their information, the prominence of quality material must be a priority. We now need Google, YouTube and other technology companies to make it a lot harder for people to fall down rabbit holes of hatred.” 

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