Chrome drops app used by anti-Semites to spot Jews

Google’s Chrome browser on Friday apparently removed an app used by white supremacists to identify and harass Jews online. A link to the app’s page led to an error message and informed users: “Item not found. This item may have been removed by its author.”

As Mic reported Thursday, the Chrome plugin highlighted Jewish names with multiple parentheses, or what the “alt-right” — a fringe conservative-white nationalist movement — calls an “(((echo))).” The so-called Coincidence Detector was available free in the Google Chrome store.

The product description read: “Coincidence Detector can help you detect total coincidences about who has been involved in certain political movements and media empires.” There was even a suggestions tab to submit Jewish names to be added to the algorithm.

Chrome allows any developer to create and add an app to their store, offering step by step instructions on how to complete the process.

The plugin, last updated Thursday, was being used by 2,518 people and had a five-star rating (based on 94 reviews).

But despite the enthusiastic reception, Coincidence Detector’s performance was somewhat inconsistent.

In many cases — 8,771 to be exact — the plugin successfully highlighted Jews’ first and last names with parentheses, with three sets as standard. Examples included Senator Bernie Sanders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, singer Bob Dylan and journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.

But in other cases, it was just the last name — as with actor Seth Rogen and writer Roger Cohen. And some prominent Jews did not get an echo at all, including journalist Julia Ioffe — who nonetheless was recently inundated with anti-Semitic threats after writing an article on Melania Trump, the wife of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

At the same time, the plugin identified some non-Jews. As one user, Steven Lewis, correctly pointed out on the suggestions page, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts got the echo treatment, but is not Jewish. (Presumably, there is a Jewish Dave Roberts out there somewhere.)

While the plugin mostly focused on names, with terms like “Jews,” “Jewish” and “Holocaust” not targeted, a notable exception was “Israel,” which Coincidence Detector changed to “(((Our Greatest Ally))).”

Here’s the full list of the people targeted by Coincidence Detector, according to writer Joe Veix, who dug into the plugin’s code.

https://twitter.com/joeveix/status/738465757558759424