At the Zera Institute, our research examines how hate, extremism, and antisemitism spread through digital ecosystems—and how they erode the foundations of liberal democracy. We uncover what often goes unnoticed: the linguistic, visual, and algorithmic patterns through which radical ideologies become normalized, shared, and socially embedded.
Our research is led by Dr. Matthias J. Becker, one of Europe’s leading experts on digital antisemitism and coded hate speech. Drawing on linguistics, AI, and discourse analysis, Becker and his team—comprising scholars in political science, sociology, media studies, and artificial intelligence—develop cutting-edge tools to detect and decode antisemitic, conspiratorial, and extremist narratives across platforms like YouTube, X, and TikTok. Their work goes far beyond keyword tracking, capturing irony, meme culture, multilingual nuance, and interaction dynamics in comment sections. This enables us to map not only how hate speech is expressed, but how it spreads, mutates, and incites.
What makes Zera unique is its synthesis of digital precision and cultural and historical depth.
Prof. Benjamin Folit-Weinberg, Director of Research at Zera, is a classical philologist and expert on ancient Greek thought. His scholarship examines how language, metaphor, and narrative shape our understanding of the world around us. At Zera, he brings this philosophical and cultural lens to contemporary debates, enriching our understanding of the values—liberal democracy, pluralism, tolerance—that are increasingly under threat. His insights help frame the digital dynamics we observe within a broader intellectual and cultural context.
