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In the hours and days following the massacre of 11 people in Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh last October, so many people typed hate on Google, resulting in the most antisemitic searches of the last 12 month.
Our analysis did not include the benign news research, but users looking for information on "Jews must die", "Kill Jews" and "I hate Jews", among others, all of which were searched at an alarming rate compared to normal.
An increase in the number of anti-Semitic searches in Google was also noted after the Passover shoot in Poway, California, in April.
And as one could expect, the publications on sites such as 4chan and 8chan, which have been widely taken up by far-right opinions, have also given rise to many discussions about the attacks, even if the content was both more surprising and disturbing.
Search "kill Jews" on Google gives stories about the Holocaust, but also details of how the Nazis killed Jews, and a plethora of stories of people who threatened the Jews.
A search for the term "Jews must die" brings up stories about the Pittsburgh shooter who allegedly shouted that before the shooting. But googling "I hate Jews" will take you to a variety of pages ranging from a Wikipedia article on Jews who hate each other to an article about a vice-co-founder, who left the company over ten years ago. years and has launched into a rant on the Jews in an article entitled "10 things I hate for the Jews". Among the articles are also comments by President Donald Trump to Republican donors that Democrats "hate the Jewish people".
As you dive into Google's search results, articles become less classic and more offensive. More and more rants and anti-Semitic vitriol from sites of white supremacy.
Google's search for "killing Jews" was also unusually high, reaching levels never seen since the Pittsburgh consequences, as a result of the Pesach shootout that killed a woman and injured the Rabbi and others, according to our research.
& # 39; Chilling at the base & # 39;
The sheer interest generated by anti-Semitism after the murder of so many cold-blooded Jews terrorizes Carly Pildis in all its fibers.
As a Jewish woman living in Washington, who takes her two-year-old daughter to the synagogue and writes for the Jewish Culture Tablet magazine, the growing violence is alarming and has an impact on real life.
"It's a serious threat to the life or death of American Jews," says Pildis. "I feel a sense of loss, as was the case for the Jews here."
The loss turns to fury when she learns more about research after the twin attacks of her community.
"It makes my blood cold," she says. "It's literally cool down deep within me."
These searches also feel like attacks. That people openly look online for ways to harm the Jewish community after suffering devastating losses.
It's personal, for her, as for other Jews who feel threatened. She says that every aggression against a Jew or the vandalism of a property with a swastika touches her. And the killings, well, they feel like a death in the family.
On the day of the attack on the Pittsburgh Synagogue, she got sick in bed. Then she received a call from a friend who excused herself excessively. She did not know why they were sorry. Turn on the television now, they tell him. When she did, she saw the deadliest attack on American Jews unfold. It was the moment she feared the most since watching the neo-Nazis march through the streets of Charlottesville in 2017 chanting "The Jews will not replace us!"
Seeing someone try to eliminate the Jews in a synagogue was hastening him.
Pildis sat on the bathroom floor, writing opinions about what it all meant, trying to understand her.
"I do not think I slept for days, it was heartbreaking, it was terrifying, it was heartbreaking," she says.
While Pildis complained of the loss of Jewish life at home, in the darkest, though freely accessible, corners of the Internet, people celebrated their celebrations.
On sites like 4chan and 8chan, levels of extreme and violent antisemitism often meet each day. Our research however revealed that this amount of hate was even higher, with peaks in the number of anti-Jewish messages posted on 8chan's / pol / board immediately after the attack on the Tree of life.
Many posts have deplored the "few" Jews killed in Pittsburgh and Poway, reducing the number of lives to a "score". Lori Kaye worshiper was killed in the Poway attack. She was at the temple praying for her recently deceased mother.
An 8chan commentator, however, called Poway's shooter "frolicsome."
"Can you imagine that your son is wasting all his life for a high score of 1? C is just embarrassing," reads in a post.
There was also a large amount of general white supremacy posts, such as "Kill them all".
But most of the time, many posters have stated that it is in fact a Jewish people who have perpetrated attacks against other Jews in order to gain support in society and to cover other activities presumed to be harmful. It imitates a long and false theory of repeated conspiracy among anti-Semites, including those who falsely claim that the Holocaust was falsified.
The "lion's den"
The experts in radicalization worry about the number of people who can start looking for anti-Semitic phrases on a traditional site like Google, but end up being dragged into places such as 4chan and 8chan and other forums where hide white supremacists and spread hatred.
And once you commit, hate seems to grow. John Earnest, the alleged Poway gunman, reportedly posted a link to a manifesto filled with hate speech on December 8th before the attack. 8chan is defended quickly after the attack, tweeting: "The message from the Poway 8h shooter was canceled nine minutes after it was created. There are only screenshots and screens there are no archives since the message has been deleted so quickly. "
But the impact of forums and hate sites remains clear. On 8chan, a poster supposed to be Earnest, called Pittsburgh's alleged shooter, Robert Bowers, is a direct source of inspiration. Bowers is believed to have made frequent anti-Semitic comments alongside xenophobic content about Gab, another homeland of right-wing extremists.
Joanna Mendelson, Senior Researcher at the ADL's Center on Extremism, calls 4chan and 8chan to the "Lion's Den". "White supremacists use weapons to hate," said Mendelson. "They use the Internet to spread their message to a global audience, arming legions of trolls to spread their message over the Internet, in the darkest corners and even on traditional platforms," she says.
These "hate labs" fuel conspiracy theories and indoctrinate vulnerable people, especially young white men, she says.
CNN spoke to a teenager who said that he had become attracted to hate online. He only told him about a month to turn away from his old self. Reject long-standing beliefs and even embrace opinions opposed to one's own religion. He asked not to be identified because he says that he has now been threatened.
Others who were radicalized online said they discovered that in less than a month, their views had completely changed and that they were prey to brainwashing. They simply do not believe that they were exploited at the time. That repeated use of memes, intended to make jokes but to sow hatred, works, say those who have escaped the cycle of hate.
And the fear is that, if more people can be consumed with hatred on the 4 or 8chan, some might take their hate from the forums in the street.
Even researchers experienced in hate speech sponsored by CNN were shocked by the depravity they found after the two synagogue attacks.
"I say we are all going to war and start the war, I'm ready," writes a poster.
"Hitler has done nothing wrong, soon the whole world will hate the Jews," writes another.
The posts often list the names of the killers, saying "give him a medal" or call their attacks "epic".
"Hi John Earnest and his best manifesto of all time," wrote a poster.
Another article specifically begins to write the names of murderers in a numbered list ending in suspension points, indicating the desire to see more.
He or she suggests more attacks until ordinary Americans accept mosque and synagogue killings as a normal thing. "
Experts like Mendelson also worry about the implication of the cult of heroes taking place online.
"What we have now are attacks that are not only designed to kill, but they are designed to … spread like wildfire, spread their poison on the Internet and inspire others," she says. .
Danger and challenge
Social media giants like Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter are forced to take into account the power of their platforms and the way they amplify hate speech while balancing freedom of expression.
But more peripheral sites, where moderation is weak or nonexistent, seem to present an even greater danger.
Perhaps the most troubling is the lack of suggestions from intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
At a hearing in the House last week on national terrorism, key law enforcement officials have not been able to provide an answer on how to manage sites Web like 8chan and on what legislation could do.
CNN has asked for feedback in the past, but their largely unmoderated and unmanaged platforms make it difficult.
That hatred spreads online at CNN's rates is unfathomable for Jews like Pildis. She fears that the attacks are just beginning and that others will come.
"It makes me incredibly sad, so sad that I can barely breathe, to see this rise of hatred, extremism and violence," she says. "But they will never take away my hope or pride in being Jewish – and American."
Pildis wants those who propagate hatred to know that there is a way to go, but if they choose to keep spewing hatred against the Jews or attacking them, the community will never be able to overturn.
"Whatever vacuum you hope to fill, it will not be filled with cannon," says Pildis. "The Jewish people have survived more than 5,000 years of oppression and violence, our very existence is an act of resistance, we are not going anywhere."
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