How’s a modern-day anti-Semite supposed to identify the Jews he might want to harass online?
There’s an app for that.
As Mic reported Thursday, a plugin for the Google Chrome internet browser highlights Jewish names with multiple parentheses, or what the “alt-right” — a fringe conservative-white nationalist movement — calls an “(((echo))).” The so-called Coincidence Detector is available free in the Google Chrome web store.
The product description reads: “Coincidence Detector can help you detect total coincidences about who has been involved in certain political movements and media empires.” There’s even a suggestions tab where you can submit Jewish names to be added to the algorithm.
(Screenshot from Google)
The plugin, last updated Thursday, is currently being used by 2,518 people and has a five-star rating (based on 94 reviews).
Despite the enthusiastic reception, Coincidence Detector’s performance is somewhat inconsistent.
In many cases — 8,771 to be exact — the plugin successfully highlights Jews’ first and last names with parentheses — three sets is the standard. Examples include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, singer Bob Dylan and journalist Jeffrey Goldberg.
But in other cases, it’s just the last name — as with actor Seth Rogen and writer Roger Cohen. And some prominent Jews don’t 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 identifies some non-Jews. As one user, Steven Lewis, correctly points out on the suggestions page, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gets the echo treatment, but is not Jewish. Presumably, there’s a Jewish Dave Roberts out there somewhere.
While the plugin is mostly focused on names, with terms like “Jews,” “Jewish” and “Holocaust” not targeted, a notable exception is “Israel,” which Coincidence Detector changes to “(((Our Greatest Ally))).”
Conveniently for the covert anti-Semite, the plugin can be set at various levels of intensity, from 0-100 sets of parentheses.
Here’s the full list of the people targeted by Coincidence Detector, according to writer Joe Veix, who dug into the plugin’s code.
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