Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

The ADL launches a Twitter account to track antisemitism. Now it’s looking for followers

The tracker is similar to the Anti-Defamation League’s ‘heat map’ of incidents, but also includes antisemitism posted online

A new Twitter account launched by the Anti-Defamation League aims to become a “one-stop shop for understanding modern antisemitism,” according to the vice president of the organization’s Center on Extremism. 

The ADL Tracker will be “a resource that enables people to see the different ways that antisemitism manifests itself,” said Oren Segal.

So far the new account has been limited to tweeting out news articles describing various antisemitic crimes and incidents from across the United States, which makes it similar in concept to the already operative HEAT map curated by the ADL. Segal said the plan is to include context, analysis and research that will allow followers to have “a sense, or a snapshot of antisemitism at any given moment.”

The tracker will also include incidents that would not be included on the map, such as antisemitic comments made by online influencers or government officials. Twitter itself, particularly since it was acquired by billionaire Elon Musk in October, has been slammed for failing to police antisemitism and other bigotry on the platform. 

So far, the rollout for the tracker has been slow, with fewer than 100 accounts following it since it first began tweeting on Jan. 20. Segal said the hope is that people will find it over time and that the ADL felt a Twitter account would be less “static” than a dedicated web page as the organization would be able to refresh the feed as antisemitic incidents happened in real time. He acknowledged that Twitter itself has become a hotbed of antisemitism and didn’t rule out expanding to other social media platforms in the future. But as of now, there are no concrete plans to do so, he said.

“Obviously, a handful of followers right now is not our goal,” he said. “We hope that over time people will view this as a resource to understand the issues and that the audience will grow.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.