Has the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called out Framingham?

This month the ADL released a report titled ‘Hate Thy Neighbor: Online Hate in Local Communities’.

The report was authored by the ADL’s Center of Technology and Society which is a research-driven advocacy center that works to end the proliferation of antisemitism and all forms of hate and harassment online.

The summary of the ADL report states that some Facebook groups in local communities have become toxic sites of harassment, particularly identity-based harassment against Jews, women, LGBTQ+ advocates, immigrants, and people of color.

The ADL report focused its investigation on three different local communities in New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts. While the report did not specifically name the communities, it did provide descriptions of each. The Massachusetts community was described as a large suburban town in central Massachusetts where in 2017 the community elected its first mayor of color, and whose next mayor appointed people affiliated with one of the ‘hateful’ websites.

The description points to one Massachusetts community: Framingham.

Framingham is a large suburban town in central Mass. Check. In 2017 Framingham elected its first mayor of color, Yvonne Spicer. Check. In 2023, Framingham’s next mayor Charlie Sisitsky appointed people affiliated with one of the websites (https://patch.com/massachusetts/framingham/gardening-can-be-second-chance-framingham-unfiltered-founder). Another check. Three checkmarks - it’s clear that the Massachusetts community investigated by the Anti-Defamation League was Framingham.

What the ADL found in all three regions was that ‘the [online] harassers—often part of the local political establishment, whether anonymous or not—excluded those they perceived as threatening outsiders to consolidate their control over civic life.’ ADL researchers had determined in a 2023 survey that the majority of Americans that experienced online harassment was through Facebook. They found over 50% were harassed on Facebook which was twice as many as another popular platform - Twitter/X.

Researchers also found that ‘targets of local harassment are more likely to interact with their harassers in everyday life, inhabiting the same town or region, and often know people in common. Harassment where you live can be even more damaging. Not only can it cause emotional and reputational harm (as well as lead to physical violence), but many targets withdraw from participating in civic life, effectively silencing critics.’

In the Massachusetts’ community case, the ADL had found:

• Anonymous group(s) formed on Facebook and privately ran news-style blogs to target women, people of color, immigrants, and/or LGBTQ+ members of the community, especially those visible in public life.
• Harassers imitated the style of local news reporting by publishing documents acquired through extensive FOIA requests that were burdensome for municipal government.
• In many cases, critics were silenced and the political establishment maintains power.

The Anti-Defamation League full report can be found at https://www.adl.org/resources/report/hate-thy-neighbor-online-hate-local-communities.

End of Part 1 in a series