Facebook Under Fire for Allowing Hate Speech Against Jews

The Algemeiner

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013 3:16 PM

Facebook, Inc. came under fire on Tuesday for allowing hate speech against Jews to proliferate in its online community.

A group called “Remove Hate From FB” said the online site has gone far in blocking pages denigrating other minority groups, but attacks against Jews are allowed to linger online.

“Why is Facebook routinely and automatically removing hate group pages which target African Americans and the Gay Community, but when it comes to hate group pages that target Jews, they seem to turn an anti-Semitic blind eye?” asks organizer Michael Mendelson.

Remove Hate From FB has called for an”offline” protest at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on October 14.

Separately, the Zionist Organization of America issued a statement calling for Facebook “to enforce its own guidelines on ‘Community Standards’ and shut down several anti-Semitic hate sites that clearly violate Facebook’s own guidelines.”

Facebook’s Community Standards page prohibits hate speech, which it defines as “attack[ing] others based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.”

Mort Klein, ZOA National President said, “Facebook hosts a number of viciously anti-Semitic sites, like ‘The Untold Story,’ a Sweden-based anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying site run by a group called the European Knights Project and partnered with the Institute of Historical Review, one of the leading international purveyors of Holocaust denial. A report in the Algemeiner Journal notes that the site ‘offers all of the anti-Semitic greatest hits: Jews control America and want to control the world; the Holocaust never happened; Jews exploit the Holocaust myth for money; the Allies did far worse to the Germans, Japanese, and Japanese-Americans than the Nazis did to the Jews; Hitler was a great guy who was just standing up for Christian civilization; Communism is a Jewish tool; Israel is the source of all evil in the world; 9/11 was a Mossad job; etc.’”

Klein said, “Facebook has permitted various toxic hate sites to proliferate on Facebook, but has also taken down a number of them, following protests. We are puzzled and outraged at Facebook’s bland response to notification of new hate sites and its evident unwillingness to enforce its own guidelines regarding such material. Failure by Facebook to act will send the message that Facebook lacks the will to enforce its own standards on the content it permits. This will be a disaster that will encourage more extremists, racists and anti-Semites to organize violent campaigns on Facebook. We urge Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg: close the ‘Third Intifada’ page by closing new hate sites as they emerge.”

http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/09/17/facebook-under-fire-for-allowing-hate-speech-against-jews-to-proliferate-online/