Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
New stats reveal worrying trends of violence on the web
'To murder, to rape, to burn, to destroy, to eradicate' are just some of the common phrases posted on the web every 3 seconds; Knesset lobby to review new findings that last year saw 175,000 calls to violence; MK: 'Soon it will erupt on the streets.'
New research revealing concerning figures on the levels of violence which has permeated the internet will be presented in the Knesset on Tuesday.
According to the research, which was conducted by The Berl Katznelson Foundation and the research company Vigo, every three seconds an internet surfer calls for acts of violence.
Moreover, during the last year alone 175,000 instances of calls to violence on social media were recorded, a third of which included direct violent threats such as “I will kill you”. The remaining two thirds were indirect calls to violence.
The majority of the violent posts on the internet (83 percent) were uploaded by men, 66% of whom were below the age of 30. Seventy percent of these people share profiles identifying with the political right.
Photo: Shutterstock
The findings come as part of a research report addressing the subject of hate on the internet and will be presented to a Knesset lobby group which strives to remove violence and incitement from the web.
The calls for violence are mainly directed against Arabs (50%) and also against people to the left of the political spectrum (20%) while 15% of the calls were against the LGBT community. The most common expressions written include “to kill,” “to destroy,” “to break,” “to rape,” and “to annihilate.”
“The breadth of the violence bring us to the realization that a large proportion of the public occupies the internet as no man’s land and a place without law and order,” said Anat Rosilio who manages the hate report project.
MK Revital Swid (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
“The reality that every three seconds there is a call to violence on the internet must be a cause for concern,” said the chairman of the lobby for removing violence from the internet MK Revital Swid (Zionist Union).
“The internet causes a virtual bloodshed. As the chairwoman of the lobby I met with people who have fallen victim to this, who cry and don’t leave their homes because of violence on the web,” she continued.
“When will we internalize the fact that words kill? The hate report teaches that we are raising a violent generation and not long from now the violence will erupt into the streets,” Swid warned. “The difference between calls to violence which fuels hatred and actual physical violence is a mere step. It is our responsibility to act to remove violence from the internet.”
