Protesters demonstrate in front of the Reichstag, during a rally against government restrictions related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 29, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Christian Mang.

Antisemitic content posted on major online platforms in German and French has skyrocketed in the first two months of the year compared with the same period last year before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, a report by the European Commission showed.

During January and February 2021, antisemitic postings saw a 13-fold surge on German language accounts and a seven-fold increase in French channels studied. The report — conducted by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a London-based think-thank focused on extremism, and published Tuesday — is based on collated data on online antisemitic content in French and German on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram.

According to the analysis of the data, almost two thirds of the messages matching antisemitic keywords were detected on Telegram, showing it to be the platform most prone to antisemitic messaging by a large margin, compared to Facebook and Twitter.

“This research points to a considerable grey area of legal but harmful [antisemitic] content and behaviors prevalent across platforms. Addressing the proliferation of such ‘legal but harmful’ antisemitic content provides a considerable challenge for tech companies and governments alike,” the report stated. “Our research points to the urgent need to address online antisemitism as part of a comprehensive digital regulatory regime at a European level.”

Data for the report was collected from January 2020 until March 2021 to analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on online antisemitism. The report comes amid a European policy debate around countering online hate speech.

The findings of the report drew on data analysis using social listening tools and natural language processing software, combined with qualitative analysis.

Qualitative analysis found the proliferation of a number of “significant” antisemitic narratives related to the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from conspiracy theories presenting vaccines as a Jewish plot to sterilize or control populations, to representations of Jews as unhygienic or as a “virus” themselves.

The most dominant antisemitic narratives were conspiracy theories about Jews ruling international financial, political and media institutions, which comprised 89% of German antisemitic content and 55% of French, according to a manually coded sample of posts. Additionally, antisemitism unrelated to COVID-19 was also recorded in the collected data during the pandemic period, including more general accusations of Jews controlling various institutions as well as Holocaust denial, and Nazi propaganda.

The report recommended policymakers to “consider proactive measures to address the proliferation of ‘grey zone’ legal but harmful antisemitic content and behaviors prevalent across platforms, including moving beyond solely ‘content-based’ approaches towards broader ‘systems-based’ digital regulation which guarantees the safety of users while preserving rights of expression.”