New German digital platform targets Holocaust denial, online antisemitism

Germany's University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) has launched a new digital educational platform designed to help students recognize Holocaust denial and online antisemitism, as educators warn that misinformation and anti-Jewish hate continue to spread.

The platform, called ShoutOut, was unveiled June 26 at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) in Berlin. Its launch comes as Holocaust knowledge remains alarmingly low among younger generations.

According to a 2020 Claims Conference study, 63% of U.S. Millennials and Gen Z respondents were unaware that six million Jews were murdered during the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust.

Designed for secondary school students, ShoutOut combines classroom resources with interactive learning. Its centerpiece is a 15-minute immersive virtual game that allows players to role-play as trainees in a resistance movement, teaching them how to identify antisemitic content and online hate.

The platform also includes lesson plans and educational materials for classroom discussions on antisemitism in the digital age. International schools will have free access beginning this month, and the platform is currently available in German and English.

Greg Schneider, Executive Vice President of the Claims Conference, said Holocaust survivors remain deeply concerned about the consequences of rising antisemitism.

“[Holocaust survivors still with us today] worry – as do many of us – what unchecked hate can do next,” Schneider said.

“It is why we are adamant about working with developers on innovative technologies like ShoutOut to combat antisemitism, Holocaust denial and distortion,” he explained.

Dr. Felix Klein, Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight Against Antisemitism, said educational initiatives like ShoutOut are essential to preserving democratic discourse online.

“If we fail to win the fight against antisemitism online, we risk losing the internet as a space for democratic discourse,” Klein warned.

“That is why ShoutOut is so important: the project empowers young people to recognize antisemitic patterns, understand them, and speak out against them,” he added.

The platform launches amid a broader surge in online antisemitism. Anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rhetoric increased sharply following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251.

In November 2023, just one month after the Oct. 7 attack, actors Sacha Baron Cohen, Amy Schumer and Debra Messing publicly criticized TikTok, arguing that the platform was facilitating the spread of antisemitic content.

“What is happening at TikTok is it is creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis,” Cohen warned at the time.

“I understand that you are in a very, very difficult and complicated place, but you also are the main platform for the dissemination of Jew hate,” Messing told a senior TikTok official.

Governments have also begun turning to technology to combat online antisemitism. Hungary, one of Israel's closest allies in the European Union, has developed an artificial intelligence tool that identifies antisemitic content on social media and alerts authorities when necessary.

Last September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the technology after receiving a briefing from Kálmán Szalai, president of Hungary's Action and Protection Foundation (TEV).

“Antisemitic hatred, both online and offline, impacts not only Jewish communities abroad but also Israel’s security,” Netanyahu assessed.

He also called for the AI tool to be spread across Europe and Western societies.

Szalai explained that it “identifies antisemitic content on social media and, if necessary, forwards it to the authorities.”

With ShoutOut now available to schools in German and English, its developers hope the platform will help equip a new generation to recognize Holocaust denial, challenge antisemitic content and promote informed discussion before online hate spreads further.