‘Hitler had a valid argument against some Jews’: Repertoires for the denial of antisemitism in Facebook discussion of a survey of attitudes to Jews and Israel

Abstract

Existing research suggests that, in contemporary liberal democracies, complaints of racism are routinely rejected and prejudice may be both expressed and disavowed in the same breath. Surveys and historical research have established that-both in democratic states and in those of the Soviet Bloc (while it existed)-antisemitism has long been related to or expressed in the form of statements about Israel or 'Zionist', permitting anti-Jewish attitudes to circulate under cover of political critique. This article looks at how the findings of a survey of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli attitudes were rejected by users of three Facebook pages associated with the British Left. Through thematic discourse analysis, three recurrent repertoires are identified: firstly, what David Hirsh calls the 'Livingstone Formulation' (i.e. the argument that complaints of antisemitism are made in bad faith to protect Israel and/or attack the Left), secondly, accusations of flawed methodology similar to those with which UK Labour Party supporters routinely dismiss the findings of unfavourable opinion polls, and thirdly, the argument that, because certain classically antisemitic beliefs pertain to a supposed Jewish or 'Zionist' elite and not to Jews in general, they are not antisemitic. In one case, the latter repertoire facilitates virtually unopposed apologism for Adolf Hitler. Contextual evidence suggests that the dominance of such repertoires within one very large UK Labour Party-aligned group may be the result of action on the part of certain 'admins' or moderators. It is argued that awareness of the repertoires used to express and defend antisemitic attitudes should inform the design of quantitative research into the latter, and be taken account of in the formulation of policy measures aiming to restrict or counter hate speech (in social media and elsewhere).

Racism, Hate Speech, and Social Media: A Systematic Review and Critique

“…Sanderson et al (2016) also note that it is preferable to contact people when assessing intention on social media. Some justifications observed in our sample as to why informed consent was not obtained seemed a bit flawed, like justifying reporting on data extracted from a private social media space because “with tens of thousands of members”, private Facebook groups “cannot be considered a private space in any meaningful sense” (Allington 2018, 131). From a feminist approach to privacy on social media research, Linabary and Corple (2019) note the importance of informed consent and invite researchers to think carefully about how data collection and analyses can put social media users at risk.…”

Textismos como procedimientos de lenguaje inclusivo. Comunicación digital docente e implicaciones educativas

“…Una de las características que favorece el uso negativo de la red es que los autores de los tweets pueden quedar en el anonimato y parapetarse en la libertad de expresión (Brown, 2018), y esto ha propiciado que sea un espacio en el que abunde el discurso de odio (Comisión Europea, 2021). Como muestra de ello, estudios recientes muestran que el discurso de odio en Twitter se ha dirigido a diversos colectivos, como las mujeres (Frenda et al, 2019;Esposito y Zollo, 2021), los judíos (Allington, 2018;Ozalp et al, 2020), los musulmanes (Vidgen y Yasseri, 2020), o las personas con discapacidad (Alhaboby et al, 2016;Burch, 2018), por citar algunos.…”

The British Labour Party and the antisemitism crisis: Jeremy Corbyn and image repair theory

“…We also need to acknowledge the fact that thereafter, Labour Party members, activists and occasionally even representatives were exposed as having engaged in behaviours, often disseminated via social media, that could be construed as antisemitic (Allington, 2018). Media coverage on the issue would increase after the comments of Ken Livingstone, former Labour Mayor of London, in an interview in April 2016 (BBC Newsnight, 2016).…”