Anti-Semitism has always adapted to its environment. Today, it has adapted to the digital economy.
What once circulated through fringe pamphlets or isolated gatherings now thrives online, in an environment where outrage is rewarded, provocation is amplified, and attention can be monetized. Anti-Semitism no longer just spreads. In many cases this is encouraged.
In the modern attention economy, clicks equal money. Algorithms are designed to reward engagement, not accuracy or morality. Content that shocks or enrages spreads further and faster, and anti-Semitic material unfortunately performs well in that system. The result is not only broader exposure to hate, but also a series of financial incentives that perpetuate and accelerate hate.
ANTISEMITISM BECOMES ‘NORMAL’ WHEN JEWISH TEENS PAY THE PRICE
We saw this dynamic recently in Miami Beach, where videos circulated online of influencers chanting Nazi slogans and saluting, first in a limousine and later in a nightclub. They laughed, playing for the cameras, fully aware that they were being recorded and without a hint of shame.
The episode spread widely because it was inflammatory. In today’s digital ecosystem, outrage drives visibility. Visibility drives traffic. Traffic generates income. Anti-Semitism becomes content and content becomes cash.
Social media influencers make money off anti-Semitism. (CyberGuy.com)
Extremist figures understand this well. For some, anti-Semitism is of strategic importance. Provocation attracts attention. Attention drives donations, subscriptions, merchandise sales and influence. In these cases, hatred is not just ideology. It’s a business model.
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What once existed on the margins now operates openly on mainstream platforms, supported by systems that reward engagement without evaluating consequences.
When hatred becomes profitable, behavior changes.
Repetition normalizes rhetoric that would once have caused immediate alarm. Over time, the presence of money weakens moral resistance. When content is rewarded, it can begin to feel acceptable or at least tolerable.
Anti-Semitic graffiti defaces the headquarters of the Israeli-American Council. (The National Headquarters of the Israeli American Council (IAC) in Los Angeles)
This is where the danger lies, not just for Jewish communities, but for society more broadly. Anti-Semitism is embedded in a digital economy that values ​​virality over responsibility and profit over principle.
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Too often, the responses treat anti-Semitism solely as a problem of content moderation. That ignores the bigger problem. As long as platforms benefit from engagement regardless of its content, hateful material will continue to surface. As long as advertisers fail to investigate where their dollars appear, they risk indirectly funding extremism. And as long as policymakers avoid examining how existing incentives work, the cycle will continue.
The consequences do not remain online. Normalization in digital spaces is expanding into real life, to campuses, public venues, workplaces and neighborhoods that were once assumed to be isolated by geography or diversity. The rhetoric circulating online doesn’t stop there.
At Boundless, we work to help leaders and communities understand and combat modern anti-Semitism. That work increasingly requires grappling with a reality where economics and extremism intersect. This is not about censoring speech. It is about recognizing and dismantling systems that financially reward division.
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Hate should never be a revenue stream. Until we address the incentives that allow anti-Semitism to thrive, we will continue to treat the symptoms while ignoring the causes. This is about the integrity of our public square, and whether we are willing to say clearly and collectively that some things are not for sale.
