Social media has always been a place where people voice their opinions, but sometimes, it can cause more harm than good. As we have seen in the past few weeks, anti-Semitism has been one of the many negative things displayed on social media. With many students being influenced by things they see on social media, Park needs to talk about it.

Rapper Kanye West has been one of many who has used their voice to cause harm. His anti-Semitic remarks on Twitter have caused more people to openly say things that harm the Jewish community. He’s uploaded many related tweets, including one that says, “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I actually can’t be anti-semitic because black people are actually Jew also.” By “deathcon,” he means “DEFCON,” a military term that is used to indicate the severity of a national threat, with one being the lowest and five being the highest. To many people, this seems like West plans on causing harm towards the Jewish community. 

With such easy access to the internet, people can create troll accounts, which are used for the sole purpose of spreading hate. After West’s comments were made, Los Angeles received a rise in anti-Semitic hate. On a 405 freeway overpass, a hate group gave Nazi salutes beside a banner that read “Kanye was right about the Jews.”

Another contributing factor to the rise of anti-Semitism is Elon Musk’s newly acquired ownership of Twitter. He is now allowing hate speech to be tolerated under the false narrative of it being free speech. Hate speech is used to cause harm to a person or community, while free speech has no violent implications. Nothing good ever comes out of hate speech. Social media has always been a significant contributor to hate speech. People knowing that they can stay anonymous helps with the hate being poured freely onto social media platforms. Since they know they can’t get caught, people spew all of the hatred they can.

Park has one of the largest Jewish communities in the state, so what can we do to make sure that such incidents like the one in Los Angeles don’t happen here? Teenagers are an extremely vulnerable group especially to the influence of social media so a way that Park can prevent these potential issues from happening is by educating students. Teachers can explain the impact that these hateful comments have on minority groups, such as the Jewish community. Almost two-thirds of young adults in America didn’t know that the Holocaust is real according to The Guardian. Without the needed knowledge, history can and will repeat itself. Park can also work to make sure that anti-Semitism won’t continue being on the rise by amplifying Jewish voices and speaking up against what they see. Being silent on an issue is being a part of it.