“Technology companies have a responsibility”: Brooklyn’s tech rabbi on tackling online antisemitism
Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone, one of the key figures spearheading the social media of Chabad.org, the official website of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement, appeared on the most recent episode of Podcast Against Antisemitism where he discussed means of tackling online antisemitism.
“You have an issue with the platforms where you have these platforms that allow people to push out disinformation and antisemitism at such scale, so quickly, and it’s so hard to get down. It’s like a whack-a-mole, if they do pull down one thing it pops up in a bunch of other places. And I do think that technology companies do have a responsibility to do this.”
Rabbi Lightstone revealed how he had a video in which he was baking bread swiftly removed due to a perceived copyright infringement over a piece of music, despite him actually having had the rights to the song.
“When there’s an incentive when it comes to content in other ways, they have the ability to use [artificial intelligence] and stuff like that to help filter out potential issues, so you have to imagine if antisemitism is a priority, the ability to help get it down should exist.”
Turning his attention to social media users, Rabbi Lightstone acknowledged that both trolls and ignorant but well-meaning users exist. In the first instance, he spoke of an interaction he had with a Twitter user in which the user stated that “Jews are horrible people” and that he “tried to avoid them” as much as he could, to which Rabbi Lightstone replied: “You realise you just spent fifteen minutes arguing online with a Hasidic rabbi, right?”
Speaking about Twitter users who may make ignorant remarks but are willing to learn from their mistakes, Rabbi Lightstone said: “For some people, there is an education issue. Sometimes, you do have well-meaning people. And I’ve had an experience where I’ve seen someone say something online, and it’s very easy to jump on them…you see the account, there’s a real person behind it, really making, in their minds, a good attempt…there’s a way to engage in dialogue that is constructive.”
He added: “That won’t weed out the trolls. The trolls aren’t there in good faith anyway.”
Throughout the interview, Rabbi Lightstone touched upon a variety of other issues including telling the history of the deadly Crown Heights riot and how he is raising funds for Torah scrolls using NFTs.
The podcast with Rabbi Lightstone can be listened to here, or watched here.
Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.
