© 2024 | WUWF Public Media
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL 32514
850 474-2787
NPR for Florida's Great Northwest
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Echo: Chrome Browser And ADL Take Action On Anti-Jewish Symbol

The Anti-Defamation League has added the Echo symbol — a series of three brackets placed before and after a Jewish name — to its database of hate speech. The symbol has emerged on social media on sites used by white supremacist and other anti-Semitic groups who aim to identify and target Jews, particularly journalists, politicians and celebrities.

The move by the ADL comes a week after Google’s popular Chrome browser removed a plug-in that could create the symbol in a single keystroke. The written symbol seems to have been created after a 2014 podcast broadcast a literal echo sound when speaking Jewish names.

The story gained public attention following an article by New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman, who then became a target of the symbol. Here & Now‘s Robin Young talks to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt about the symbol and its significance.

Guest

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO, Anti Defamation League. He tweets @jgreenblattADL.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

A visitor with with a Star of David and the words 'Against Hatred Toward Jews' written on her hands attends a rally against anti-Semitism on September 14, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)
/
A visitor with with a Star of David and the words 'Against Hatred Toward Jews' written on her hands attends a rally against anti-Semitism on September 14, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)
The sign in front of the Anti-Defamation League's Jerusalem headquarters. (nealunger/Flickr)
/
The sign in front of the Anti-Defamation League's Jerusalem headquarters. (nealunger/Flickr)