“The Guilty Often Remain Unpunished.” EU Agency Releases Report on Hate Crimes 0 8

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) has released a report titled "Monitoring and Documenting Antisemitism in the EU — Current State and Next Steps." 96% of respondents in a survey on discrimination and hate crimes against Jews reported that in the year preceding the survey, they encountered at least one form of antisemitism. Only a few of those surveyed report incidents to official authorities.

The report emphasizes that due to the lack of official reports, perpetrators often remain unpunished, and victims do not receive the compensation they are entitled to under EU law.

For the EU and its member states to effectively combat antisemitism, it is necessary to strengthen each link in this chain: reporting incidents, recording them, investigating, prosecuting, and sentencing. To enable victims of antisemitism to seek compensation, victims and witnesses need to be persuaded of the necessity to contact the relevant authorities.

Antisemitic incidents must be properly recorded, FRA reminds, and law enforcement personnel should undergo necessary training to recognize and document the signs of such crimes. This, in turn, will facilitate the investigation of antisemitic incidents, which is crucial for prosecution: without compelling evidence of antisemitic motives, perpetrators cannot be held accountable. Finally, offenders must be punished effectively and proportionately.

As reported by Radio France Internationale, documenting manifestations of antisemitism online is particularly challenging, the report states, primarily due to the scale of the phenomenon. Survey results show that 90% of respondents have encountered antisemitism online.

The COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's war against Ukraine, as well as the reaction to the terrorist attack by HAMAS on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent military operation in Gaza have contributed to the spread of antisemitic narratives online, including denial, distortion, and trivialization of the Holocaust, as well as conspiracy theories.

In this context, the European Digital Services Act, which came into force on February 17, 2024, requires online platforms to provide users with mechanisms to report illegal content, including antisemitic content.

In this context, FRA notes that algorithms used to detect hate speech may place excessive emphasis on terms and words like "Jew" or "Jewish," while missing other, more subtle forms of antisemitism. "The very fact that such algorithms overreact to certain words and do not react to others is well understood by internet users who intend to exploit this for criminal purposes. As a result, their offensive comments go undetected and unblocked.