Google pulls Chrome extension that tracked Jewish names
Google on Thursday pulled a Chrome extension that allowed anti-Semites to track supposedly Jewish surnames across the web.
Google confirmed on Friday that it had removed the application for violating hate speech policies at the company. Mic, which first reported on the extension, broke the news of Google’s decision.
{mosads}The extension — officially called “Coincidence Detector” — searched for Jewish names based on a list kept by the application’s creators and displayed the names with multiple parentheses — a symbol white supremacists often use to target Jews online for harassment.
A man named John Doe, for example, would see his last name rendered as (((Doe))) if it was on the list. The full names of some individuals were also listed.
Users could submit names they thought should be added to the list.
According to Mic, the Chrome extension store’s summary of the application read: “Coincidence Detector can help you detect total coincidences about who has been involved in certain political movements and media empires.”
The outcry over the extension — and the quiet emergence of the (((echo))) symbol — ties into concerns some have raised about anti-Semitic harassment by supporters of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
New York Times reporter Jonathan Weisman wrote about how he was subject to anti-Semitic abuse after posting an op-ed critical of Trump. One of the first tweets to him about it included the echo symbol: “Hello ((Weisman)).”
Writer Julia Ioffe also suffered anti-Semitic harassment when she profiled Trump’s wife, Melania, for “GQ.”
Melania Trump said that Ioffe had “provoked” the abuse.
“I don’t control my fans,” she said, “but I don’t agree with what they’re doing. I understand what you mean, but there are people out there who maybe went too far. She provoked them.”
– Updated at 4:46 p.m.
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