The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) has released its 2025 Digital Terror and Hate Report Card, revealing widespread corporate failure to combat online hate, antisemitism, and extremist propaganda. Presented at events with the New York City Council and the California State Legislature, the findings offer a bleak assessment of how major platforms are handling harmful content.
Using a structured nine-point rubric, the Center evaluated the most popular digital platforms across 36 measurable factors. Each platform received a letter grade, from A to F, based on criteria including response to flagged hate speech, enforcement of policies, transparency, cooperation with law enforcement, and alignment with international standards like the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and the EU Digital Services Act.
The results were troubling. Most platforms scored at failing or near-failing levels. Only Roblox earned above a C, achieving a B+ for its emergency response protocols and content moderation efforts.
Platforms Receiving the Lowest Grades
Several high-profile platforms received F grades, including Telegram and Gab. Others falling into the D range included X (formerly Twitter), Amazon Music, Discord, Steam, Truth Social, Rumble, Odysee, Bitchute, and VK. Even larger platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google/YouTube, and TikTok hovered around the C mark, signaling persistent shortcomings.
Roblox stood alone with a B+ grade, outperforming every major social media brand on the list. With over 3 billion users engaging monthly across the lowest-rated platforms, the scale of the problem is impossible to ignore.
Vladislav Khaykin, Executive Vice President of Social Impact & Partnerships at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, highlighted the issue sharply: “These grades aren’t just letters. They reflect whether users are being protected or exposed to harm.”
He pointed out an unsettling irony: TikTok, despite concerns about foreign influence, scored higher than several prominent US-owned platforms. The fact that a gaming platform like Roblox demonstrated stronger defenses against hate speech than leading social networks, Khaykin added, “should alarm every American who cares about truth, safety, and democratic values in the digital public square.”
Hate Speech: A Growing Threat Beyond Words
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Director of Global Social Action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, warned that hate online is no longer confined to offensive speech. It has evolved into a coordinated assault on truth, democracy, and human dignity.
“This year’s report paints a disturbing picture of a digital ecosystem under siege, where extremist ideologies, antisemitism, and terrorism are being spread unchecked across mainstream and alternative platforms,” Cooper said.
Without meaningful action from tech companies, he warned, the digital world risks becoming a frontline battleground for global extremism.
SWC’s Recommended Actions for Tech Companies
In response to the findings, the Simon Wiesenthal Center called for urgent steps:
-
Reinstate and enforce content moderation policies that have been weakened or removed.
-
Permanently ban accounts linked to terrorist activities.
-
Develop active strategies to detect and disrupt state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.
-
Publicly commit to funding digital literacy programs to educate users.
-
Require full transparency from platforms about how algorithms make decisions.
The Center’s recommendations aim to shift responsibility back onto platform operators, pushing them to create safer digital spaces.
Where to Find the Full Report
The full 2025 Digital Terror and Hate Report Card is available for public review. Readers can view detailed grades, platform evaluations, and analysis at wiesenthal.org.
A Serious Warning for the Future of Online Spaces
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2025 report draws a stark conclusion: without immediate and meaningful reform, online spaces are poised to become even more hazardous. The trends outlined in the report show that extremists are not just exploiting isolated corners of the internet; they are thriving across major platforms used by billions.
The continued reluctance of tech companies to enforce their own policies, remove dangerous content, and invest in detection efforts creates an environment where hate speech, disinformation, and extremism can flourish unchecked. With each day of inaction, the gap between platform promises and platform realities grows wider.
The stakes are not limited to isolated incidents of harassment or offensive speech. They cut far deeper, striking at the foundations of civil discourse, public trust, and democratic participation. Allowing extremist voices to dominate online spaces shifts the center of gravity away from factual information, constructive dialogue, and open debate. In their place comes propaganda, radicalization, and division.
Without stronger accountability, platforms risk becoming not just bystanders, but active enablers of a new era where truth is drowned out by conspiracy, and hate outpaces hope. The fight to preserve democratic values—freedom of expression, equality, rule of law—depends on curbing the toxic influence spreading across the digital landscape.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s message is clear: the time for half-measures has passed. Tech companies must move beyond public relations statements and confront the real consequences of neglect. Failure to act now will not only endanger today’s users but will also leave future generations to clean up a digital space far more broken, polarized, and dangerous than anything we see today.