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Google, Facebook and YouTube are “reducing hate speech”, according to Latin American report

Antisemitic content in Spanish is being significantly reduced by Google, Facebook and YouTube, according to a Latin American antisemitism watchdog.

A report on online antisemitism in Spanish by the Buenos Aires-based Observatorio Web (Web Observatory) stated that since 2016, antisemitic content resulting from a Spanish-language search for “Judio” (Jew), had dropped from nearly one third to 3%.

Observatorio Web was set up as a joint initiative of the Latin American branch of the World Jewish Congress and Argentina’s Jewish community, to monitor online antisemitism in Spanish. In its report, released on 25th September, it stated that in 2016, 30% of Spanish-language search-results for “Judio” contained antisemitic content. That figure was now down to about 3%. Meanwhile, it stated, the level of antisemitic content in the top ten results of a Google search for Judio had dropped by 50% over the past year alone.

On Facebook, where Spanish is the second most popular language, the report found that around 30% of the Spanish-language content mentioning Jews involved antisemitism. Within the antisemitic content, a majority mentioned Zionism or Israel, noted the report.

“Israel and Zionism are the vehicles for antisemitism online,” the report states. “This is a consolidated trend.”

In the case of YouTube, Observatorio Web identified 500 videos in Spanish espousing Holocaust denial, which YouTube has now taken down.

“The companies are starting to work against hate speech, but there is still a lot to do,” said Ariel Siedler, Director of Observatorio Web.

Recently, Facebook announced that it would ban QAnon conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial on its platforms.

It comes as researchers in Sweden claimed that 30 percent of comments and posts about Jews on social media included antisemitic rhetoric and tropes.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist with this project.

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30% of online posts about Jews are antisemitic, recent Swedish report finds

A group of researchers in Sweden have published a report showing that 30 percent of comments and posts about Jews on social media included antisemitic rhetoric and tropes.

The Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) analysed postings specifically about Jews across four different social media platforms over a six month period in 2019 and came to its conclusion after reviewing approximately 2.5 million posts about Jews or Judaism on the digital sites 4chan/pol, Gab, Reddit and Twitter.

The research is a contribution in the Swedish-government funded project to investigate increasing antisemitism online.

A study of the researchers’ results showed almost 25 percent of the social media posts contained popular antisemitic stereotypes, with a further nine percent containing no explicit stereotype but expressing an active hatred towards Jews and the Jewish community.

A researcher at FOI stated that the most common stereotypes, centring on Jewish world domination, could be seen “in several of the conspiracy theories circulating on the internet and in social media pages.” The majority of these were found on the networking pages of Gab and 4chan/pol. It is suspected that limited regulation and policy on hate speech in the United States, where most major platforms are based, contributes to increasing antisemitism on social media, as these sites provide total user anonymity.

According to the report, users who are suspended from Twitter turn to Gab as an alternative platform on which to spread antisemitic propaganda and messages.

Following the publication of the research, Sweden’s Jewish Central Council has demanded that internet giants now seek swiftly to remove all discriminatory content from their platforms in the fight against antisemitism.

Recently, Campaign Against Antisemitism reported on concerns over the antisemitism in Sweden, in Malmö in particular.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist us with this project.

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“With rising antisemitism, we’re expanding our policy to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust”: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announces that hate speech policy will now include Holocaust denial

The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has just announced that the company’s hate speech policy will now include Holocaust denial.

In his statement, Mr Zuckerberg said: “Today we’re updating our hate speech policy to ban Holocaust denial.

“We’ve long taken down posts that praise hate crimes or mass murder, including the Holocaust. But with rising antisemitism, we’re expanding our policy to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust as well. If people search for the Holocaust on Facebook, we’ll start directing you to authoritative sources to get accurate information.

“I’ve struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimizing or denying the horror of the Holocaust. My own thinking has evolved as I’ve seen data showing an increase in antisemitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech. Drawing the right lines between what is and isn’t acceptable speech isn’t straightforward, but with the current state of the world, I believe this is the right balance.”

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We welcome this policy announcement from Facebook, which, along with its ban on QAnon conspiracy theories earlier this month, shows that the company is beginning to take antisemitic incitement on its platforms seriously. There is a direct line between online incitement and threats and violence against Jews in the real world, and social media companies must take responsibility for the role that their platforms play in this vicious process.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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Facebook removes QAnon conspiracy theory accounts across all platforms and Instagram

The social media platform Facebook stated that as of 6th October all accounts linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement would be removed from Facebook pages, groups, advertisements and Instagram accounts.

QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory that believes that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles, consisting of political figures, celebrities and billionaires, is running a global paedophilic ring and plotting against the President, who is planning to make a stand against the secret group.

Many of QAnon’s conspiracy theories are inspired by the Protocols of the Elders of Zion forgery, a hoax document. Several followers also support theories which draw inspiration from the antisemitic blood libel, claiming that these “elites” drink the blood of abused children to acquire power.

A search engine known as Qresear.ch provides tools to explore posts on 8chan/8kun, QAnon’s former and current ‘host’ platform, comprised of around 14.5 million associated data sources. The term “Jews” when searched generated over 86,000 retrievable antisemitic posts. 

The largest Facebook group dedicated to QAnon had approximately 200,000 members before it was banned in mid-August. The movement gained traction amongst parenting groups through the “#SaveTheChildren” hashtag that was harnessed to recruit and organise concerned users. In June this year, Twitter took similar action and limited features for around 150,000 accounts with links to QAnon.

In a recent statement, Facebook claimed that staff had begun removing inappropriate content and deleting the pages responsible. Restrictions have been placed on over 1,950 Facebook groups and more than 10,000 Instagram accounts. With a Dangerous Organisations Operations team to enforce the introduced regulations, the platform has said that it will actively detect offensive content or disinformation rather than simply relying upon the reports of other users. 

However, it was emphasised that “this will take time and will continue in the coming days and weeks” with traffic to mainstream social media sites increasing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist with this project.

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Antisemitic hate preacher Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam YouTube channel is finally deleted

The online video-sharing site YouTube has finally deleted the account of the Nation of Islam (NOI), which is led by the antisemitic hate preacher Louis Farrakhan.

According to the platform, the NOI channel was removed on 2nd October for content in violation of the site’s policies against hate speech, specifically the widespread circulation of ideas that target members of a protected group as being part of evil conspiracies. Mr Farrakhan has made several claims that the Jewish people orchestrated the slave trade and the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that the Jewish community conspires to control the country’s media, economy and foreign and domestic legislation. These are all antisemitic conspiracy theories.

During a speech on 4th July, Mr Farrakhan referred to Jews collectively as “Satan” and “the enemy of God”, claiming Jews had “broken their covenant relationship with God.” He encouraged listeners to actively fight “the imposter Jews who are worthy of chastisement of God”. The controversial speech has been viewed over 1.2 million times on numerous YouTube channels, one of which is a digital cable network founded by Sean “P Diddy” Combs. The video has since been removed from the platform.

In an online lecture series between 2013 and 2014, which had an average of around 40,000 views per sermon, the NOI leader made claims that the “Jewish media”, referencing Hollywood, was responsible for “normalised sexual degeneracy, profanity and all kinds of sin.”

A spokesperson for YouTube reportedly said: “We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies.”

The site has reportedly updated guidelines to tackle content that spreads hateful or discriminatory conspiracy theories, leading to five times more videos being removed and over 25,000 channels terminated for directly violating the revised hate speech policies.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has expanded our coverage of antisemitism worldwide. Please contact us if you would like to share feedback or volunteer to assist with this project.

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Far-right groups recruiting children as young as twelve through livestreaming events on YouTube

Far-right groups are recruiting children as young as twelve through livestreaming events on YouTube, according to The Times.

The events reportedly include live interviews with teenagers who are considered to be rising stars in far-right circles, aimed at viewers born in the 1990s and 2000s.

It is understood that groups such as Patriotic Alternative, a fascist organisation founded last year, are using such tactics, including through “Zoomer Night”, a regular event livestreamed as part of the group’s “Patriotic Talk” series.

In one recent such event on YouTube, four males in their teens and early twenties talked about their concerns over the supposed “complete erasure of white Europeans” and “white genocide”, and how “white people being written out of their own history”. One participant said: “The [British] Government is preparing for a future without white people and that should be obvious to everybody.”

Other far-right individuals and groups are reportedly using the same tactics.

Police believe that the far-right constitutes the fastest-growing terrorist threat to Britain.

Patriotic Alternative reportedly said: “It is not our intention to ‘recruit’ anybody because our way of thinking is already widespread. It is simply our intention to provide a voice for the millions of people who already agree with us.”

YouTube reportedly said: “We have strict policies that prohibit hate speech. We terminate channels that repeatedly or egregiously violate our policies. After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we saw a fivefold spike in video removals and have terminated over 25,000 channels.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been monitoring and acting against the threat for years and continues to urge the Jewish community to remain vigilant and welcomes the seriousness with which the police are treating the danger posed by the far-right.

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Invite-only social-media app for tech entrepreneurs alleged to have hosted discussion invoking antisemitic tropes

An exclusive, private American social media app has found itself caught in controversy after antisemitic stereotypes were allegedly invoked during an online discussion it was hosting on relations between Jews and African Americans.

The Clubhouse is a live audio app which emerged during the COVID-19 lockdown. According to various online reports, it is “the top virtual hang-out for venture capitalists and tech-industry entrepreneurs, along with the occasional celebrity,” while Bloomberg News calls it a favoured haunt for “venture capitalists and other Silicon Valley insiders.”

Last Monday night, the by-invitation-only app hosted a virtual conversation on “Antisemitism and Black Culture,” which, according to reports, had more than 300 participants.

Some of those present reported that antisemitic tropes linking Jews with controlling commerce and banking were repeatedly invoked during the conversation.

One Clubhouse member declared on Twitter that she had listened in for “only three minutes, but heard enough” in that time to close the app and leave the discussion. She tweeted: “There’s a room on Clubhouse right now that is literally just a bunch of people talking about why it’s ok to hate Jews so I’m done with that app for a while.”

According to another attendee, who did not want to be named, the “essential thesis” was that Jewish people and Black people face the same amount of historical trauma but “because Jewish people control the banking system they were able to claim their own reparations.”

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“Ultranationalist” terrorist group, the British Hand, is recruiting children on Instagram and Telegram

It has been reported that teenage members of a neo-Nazi group are using Instagram to recruit and promote propaganda.

The group, called the British Hand, uses a skull and crossbones logo combined with rifles over a Union Jack as its logo and launched in July on the popular social media platform, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. The official account has been shut down multiple times, but members continue to use their personal accounts to disseminate the group’s message.

The British Hand is led by an individual believed to be fifteen who lives with his mother in Derby and attends school. He has claimed to be planning a terrorist attack, according to Hope Not Hate. Other members have reportedly pledged to infiltrate the army in order to acquire training in the use of firearms.

The report says that children as young as twelve as being groomed online by neo-Nazis, whose leader describes the group as “ultranationalist” and its goal as “to get rid of Islam and those little BLM [Black Lives Matter] f***ers.”

Once recruited, the members join an encrypted Telegram chat room. It is believed there are fifteen core members in their teenage years or early twenties.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, reportedly said: “We ban groups and individuals that engage in hateful and violent activities and remove content that represents, praises or supports them – including the content brought to our attention by The Sunday Times. Between April and June, we removed more than four million pieces of content related to dangerous organisations across Facebook and Instagram.”

Police believe that the far-right poses the fastest-growing terrorist threat.

It comes as it emerged that the fascist New British Union was also seeking to recruit teenagers on social media, and a few months after several members of the proscribed neo-Nazi National Action terrorist group were convicted. Earlier this year, a teenager from Durham was also convicted of terrorism offences.

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Hacktivist group Anonymous posts antisemitic cartoon by notorious Carlos Latuff suggesting that Israel and the United States use accusations of antisemitism to muzzle criticism of Israel

The hacktivist group known as Anonymous has posted an antisemitic cartoon on Twitter by the notorious Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff.

The cartoon shows two arms, one with an Israeli flag on the cuff and the other with an American flag, using a plaster labelled “antisemitism” to muzzle the mouth of a man wearing a “Free Palestine” bandana. The connotation is that accusations of antisemitism are being cynically used by Israel and the United States to muzzle criticism of Israel.

This notion is an example of the “Livingstone Formulation”, which holds that accusations of antisemitism are bad faith attempts by Jews to stifle criticism of Israel. It was deployed by the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, which is how it earned its name, and it is antisemitic.

The post has been liked over 17,000 times. Anonymous has over 7 million followers on Twitter.

Mr Latuff has previously placed second in Iran’s Holocaust Denial Cartoon Contest, and has drawn other outrageous cartoons, for example a cartoon comparing Israel’s policies to those of the Nazis, in breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism. That cartoon was shared by Baroness Tonge.

This is not the first time Anonymous has shared antisemitic material on social media. Last month, the group posted an image of the antisemitic Freedom for Humanity mural on Facebook.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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A spate of videos featuring teenage girls pretending to be Holocaust survivors is TikTok’s latest antisemitic abomination

Numerous users of the social media video platform TikTok are pretending to be Holocaust survivors in a abominable new antisemitic trend dubbed “trauma porn”.

Some videos feature the user wearing a Star of David or the striped clothing worn by inmates at Nazi concentration camps, while others feature makeup to simulate bruising. Other videos use Auschwitz as a backdrop.

Most of the users are teenage girls and consequently we are not showing the images, although they remain available on TikTok and other social media platforms.

Some of the videos have thousands of views and likes.

However, some users have defended the videos on the basis that they are somehow educational.

One user, for example, has removed her video, saying: “I’ve always been interested in the history of the Holocaust and just wanted to make a creative video informing people about it on TikTok. It was never intended to be offensive.”

Another reportedly said: “I’m very motivated and captivated by the Holocaust and the history of World War II. I have ancestors who were in concentration camps, and have actually met a few survivors from Auschwitz camp. I wanted to spread awareness and share out to everyone the reality behind the camps by sharing my Jewish grandmother’s story.”

Last week, TikTok announced that it had removed 380,000 videos in the United States over violations of its hate speech policy.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously reported on the infestation of far-right videos and Holocaust-denial on TikTok, and has taken action in the past over Holocaust mockery on the platform.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has launched a petition calling for new legislation urgently to introduce a requirement for technology companies to remove racist incitement within set timeframes, a duty of care for social networks with personal liability for executives, and tighter requirements to provide evidence to police under warrant.

The petition can be signed here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/333146/

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “These videos are TikTok’s latest antisemitic abomination. The obsession among too many users of the platform with Holocaust mockery and Holocaust denial should be of grave concern to the company, but time and again TikTok shows even greater indifference than other social media networks to the hate spewed on its platform. Tech companies have shown that they are incapable of regulating themselves, which is why we have called on the Government to bring forward an Online Harms bill immediately.”Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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Hacktivist group Anonymous posts antisemitic mural defended by Jeremy Corbyn on social media and Facebook declines to act

Earlier this week, the hacktivist group known as Anonymous posted a picture of an antisemitic mural on Facebook, but when a member of the public brought it to the attention of the social media company, it declined to take any action.

The mural originated on a wall in London’s East End in October 2012 after the Los Angeles-based street artist Mear One painted the image, which featured apparently-Jewish bankers beneath a pyramid often used by conspiracy theorists playing Monopoly on a board carried by straining, oppressed workers, several of whom had dark or black skin. The mural, called Freedom for Humanity, was widely perceived as antisemitic, and was eventually removed.

Former Leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn was heavily criticised when it transpired that he had defended the mural. More recently, the same image was approvingly tweeted by the rapper Ice Cube who refused to remove it, and it was used by the Oxford branch of Black Lives Matter to promote an event, but the group retracted the advertisement and apologised.

A concerned member of the public reported the Anonymous post to Facebook, which apparently replied: “Thanks for your report – you did the right thing by letting us know about this. The post was reviewed, and although it doesn’t go against one of our specific Community Standards, we understand that it may still be offensive to you and others. No one should have to see posts they consider hateful on Facebook, so we want to help you avoid things like this in the future.”

We are grateful to the concerned member of the public for bringing this matter to our attention.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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New analysis suggests Facebook’s algorithm “actively promotes” Holocaust denial content

A new analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has concluded that Facebook’s algorithm “actively promoted” Holocaust denial content.

The UK-based ISD, a counter-extremism organisation, reportedly found that if one searches for “Holocaust” on Facebook, one receives suggestions for Holocaust denial pages which themselves link to publishing websites offering Holocaust revisionist and denial literature, such as material by notorious Holocaust-denier David Irving.

Last week, Facebook announced that it was banning conspiracy theories about Jews “controlling the world” from its platform and from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. But there is no plan to proscribe Holocaust denial on the networks.

Jacob Davey, ISD’s senior research manager, reportedly said: “Facebook’s decision to allow Holocaust denial content to remain on its platform is framed under the guise of protecting legitimate historical debate, but this misses the reason why people engage in Holocaust denial in the first place. Denial of the Holocaust is a deliberate tool used to delegitimise the suffering of the Jewish people and perpetuate long-standing antisemitic tropes, and when people explicitly do this it should be seen as an act of hatred.”

Recently, Campaign Against Antisemitism part of a coalition of 140 organisations around the world calling on Facebook to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism.

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CAA part of global coalition of 140 groups calling on Facebook to adopt International Definition of Antisemitism just as the social media giant says it “wants to listen and learn”

Campaign Against Antisemitism is among 140 groups calling on Facebook to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism just as Facebook told the Chief Rabbi that it “wants to listen”.

In an open letter to the technology company’s board of directors, the international coalition called on Facebook “to implement a hate speech policy on antisemitism that includes the full [Definition]”.

The letter asks whether Facebook “will take responsibility and move toward removing the scourge of antisemitism from today’s most important online public square”.

The letter comes as Facebook has written to the Chief Rabbi agreeing that “we have more to do” and wishing to “listen and learn from those who live with these issues every day”.

Facebook can show that it is listening and learning by heeding the call of the letter and adopting the Definition.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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Twitter permanently bans former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke a month after YouTube

Twitter has permanently banned the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke, from its platform.

Mr Duke has a long history of vile antisemitic views and is a prominent white supremacist.

Twitter’s decision comes a month after YouTube banned the far-right racist. It also comes after a global walkout from Twitter earlier this week to protest its failure to address antisemitic hatred on its website.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Twitter has done the right thing by banning arch antisemite and prominent racist David Duke. But why on earth has it taken this long? Yet again Twitter has been slow to act on cases that are not remotely borderline. However, if the 48-hour global boycott earlier this week has brought about a culture change at Twitter, that is to be welcomed, and hopefully the former Grand Wizard is only the first of many Jew-haters to be booted from Twitter.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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Reinforcing his views, Wiley opens new Instagram account and begins uploading disturbing videos to 250,000 followers on YouTube, as CAA asks Facebook and Google to take him off air

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Online Monitoring and Investigations Unit is aware that Wiley, who has was finally banned from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram following worldwide outrage, is now uploading disturbing videos to a small Instagram account that appears to be new, and a YouTube channel with almost 250,000 followers.

The videos continue in the same vein as his previous videos and his recent interviews with Sky News and The Voice, a newspaper for the black community, in which he reaffirmed his belief in antisemitic conspiracy theories and bigoted stereotypes about Jews.

For example, in one of the new videos, Wiley demands that an unspecified “you”, which appears from the context to refer to Jews in general, try taking his passport away so that Wiley can see quite how much power Jews have.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Facebook and Google, which own Instagram and YouTube, have been made aware of Wiley’s latest attempts to use their platforms to broadcast his appalling views. We have discussed this with them and asked that they urgently close down his remaining accounts. Wiley seems to be on a quest to discredit himself even further and to persuade his audience to hate Jews and even to go to ‘war’ with Jews. His musical career is undoubtedly over, but we are concerned that his fans could be inspired to act on his hateful broadcasts. That is why we have asked social networks to take him off air, and reported Wiley to the police and intend to privately prosecute him should the authorities refuse to act.”

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As Twitter finally deletes Wiley’s account following talks with CAA, we shone a light on its racism — literally

Twitter has permanently deleted antisemitic performer Wiley’s account. They did so following discussions with Campaign Against Antisemitism under immense pressure amid a worldwide 48-hour boycott of Twitter under the hashtag #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate.

Last night, Campaign Against Antisemitism went to Twitter’s London headquarters to shine a light on the company after it failed so spectacularly to address racist incitement on its platform.

Numerous examples of antisemitic tweets were projected onto Twitter’s building in an effort to embarrass Twitter into cleaning up the mess that it has enabled and allowed to fester online.

The video can be watched here.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Following discussions with Campaign Against Antisemitism, during which we made clear that the beginning of their path to building faith would be the removal of Wiley’s account, this morning Twitter has finally listened. The closure of Wiley’s account is too little too late, but it is at least a start for this deeply irresponsible social network.

“After Twitter’s abysmal response to blatant anti-Jewish incitement on its platform, last night we decided to literally shine a light on the company and project onto its London headquarters some of the hateful tweets that Twitter permits on its platform.

“From their pitiful responses to the hate spewed daily on their platforms, it is evident that social media companies will stop at nothing to make a profit. It is time for these deeply damaging and irresponsible companies to be held accountable for the hatred they help to spread.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism and others walked out from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for 48 hours from Monday morning as part of a #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate campaign following the social media platforms’ failure to take appropriate action against racism on their websites.

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All eyes on Twitter after Facebook and Instagram finally close Wiley’s accounts for good after CAA exposes panicked outreach to advertisers

It has taken Facebook several days, but it has finally made the decision to ban Wiley from Facebook and Instagram (which is owned by Facebook), soon after Campaign Against Antisemitism publicised Facebook’s private damage control outreach to advertisers.

In a statement, Facebook said: “There is no place for hate speech on Facebook and Instagram. After initially placing Wiley’s accounts in a seven-day block, we have now removed both his Facebook and Instagram accounts for repeated violations of our policies.”

It is unclear whether Wiley will be able to open new accounts in future, without any assurance or evidence that he will refrain from racist incitement.

Twitter, however, has so far failed to ban Wiley from its platform for any longer than seven days, despite the rapper’s antisemitic rant having begun on Twitter and only later moved to Instagram and Facebook.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Although it took Facebook several days to reach the right decision, it has now banned Wiley from its platforms. Twitter, however, has yet to do so, despite Wiley having launched his antisemitic tirade on that platform. All eyes are now on Twitter, which evidently still values profit over decency. Twitter has disgraced itself in failing to take responsibility and act against antisemitism but it can still follow Facebook in belatedly making the right decision to ban Wiley for his unrepentant racist incitement.

“It is a lamentable state of affairs that it takes a 48-hour global boycott of social media to convince Twitter and Facebook to take the most elementary action against someone using their platforms to call for Jews to be shot. Twitter’s performance over the past few days has been beyond abysmal. Nobody makes a better case for regulation of social media than the technology companies themselves.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism and others have walked out from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for 48 hours as part of a #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate campaign following the social media platforms’ failure to take appropriate action against racism on their websites.

Those who oppose antisemitic racism are encouraged to join the walkout and to add the #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism profile badge in solidarity.

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Facebook contacts major advertisers in panic over Wiley antisemitism backlash while the antisemitic performer continues to post on his Facebook account

Facebook has sent a message to advertisers, the Government and NGOs in a desperate bid to stem rising backlash over its failure to delete antisemitic performer Wiley’s Instagram messages.

The e-mail from Steve Hatch, Facebook’s Vice-President for Northern Europe, which we have reproduced in full below, sought to justify the steps that Facebook has taken, but even as the e-mail was sent, Wiley continued to post prolifically on Facebook.

So far it appears that Facebook has done little more than to remove several of Wiley’s antisemitic posts and enforce a block on his official Instagram account for 7 days (Facebook owns Instagram).

In its statement, Facebook said that “No one at Facebook finds this type of content and behaviour anything other than abhorrent.”

The statement explained that after Wiley’s posts were reported to it, its teams investigated and gathered “contextual advice from our partners who represent the Jewish community. Their partnership and expertise is invaluable in understanding the nuances of antisemitic language.”

It added that “Our dedicated law enforcement engagement team was also made aware that a criminal report had been made to the Metropolitan Police,” after Campaign Against Antisemitism made a complaint to the Metropolitan Police regarding Wiley’s posts.

Facebook continued: “These initial investigations led us to remove a number of posts from Wiley’s Instagram account. Generally, the first time we remove a user’s post we let them know why they broke our guidelines as we think it’s important they have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. But in common with many platforms, on Facebook and Instagram if a user repeatedly breaks our rules we take a series of further enforcement actions. These can range from different types of restrictions on their activity to a total removal of their account. We have enforced this policy numerous times globally and locally regarding hate speech including the suspension and subsequent removal of numerous UK organizations and individuals from our platforms.”

Facebook says that it continued its investigations over the course of Saturday 25th July and “removed further pieces of content that violated our hate speech guidelines, subsequently placing his account in a 7 day block.”

“We absolutely recognize,” Facebook concluded, “that we always have more work to do in tackling complex and evolving situations like this one. Hate speech has no place on our platforms and we will continue to update you on how we evolve our approaches and policies to counter it.”

The full e-mail is reproduced below.

Incredibly, even as this update was disseminated to advertisers, Wiley has continued to rant on his Facebook account, including against high-profile Jewish individuals, with no consequences. Facebook has yet to take any action against these posts and this account.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Facebook is in panic mode as it realises it can longer hide from the consequences of its promotion of racist Jew-hatred on its platforms. But even as it seeks to assure advertisers that it is taking action against behaviour on Instagram that it considers ‘abhorrent’, it is allowing that behaviour to continue on Facebook.

“Despite all the media attention that this story has received, Wiley has still been able to maintain his Facebook account and continue posting from it. There is evidently no depth to which a user can sink before Facebook decides to put human decency before profit.

“In its statement, Facebook is trying to claim that it has done enough against Wiley’s account, but it has not taken long for reality to catch up and betray the company’s failure to take hate seriously.

“Advertisers would be wise to think twice about whether to associate their brands with corporate enablers of racism, and the Government must take action to bring an end to the culture of impunity at social media companies.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism and others have walked out from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for 48 hours as part of a #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate campaign following the social media platforms’ failure to take appropriate action against racism on their websites.

Those who oppose antisemitic racism are encouraged to join the walkout and to add the #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism profile badge in solidarity.

Facebook’s e-mail to advertisers in full

Good afternoon.

I wanted to update you about the actions Facebook has taken following the antisemitic posts on Instagram by UK artist Wiley this weekend, which have now included removing a number of posts and enforcing a seven day block on this account. I am also setting out some further details of our broader approach to preventing and tackling hate speech on our platforms. We are sending the same communications both to our partners in Government and NGOs.

If you or any of your teams would like to discuss over VC in more detail over the coming days please do let me know.

Best wishes,

Steve

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No one at Facebook finds this type of content and behaviour anything other than abhorrent.

We currently work with a number of anti-hate speech NGOs representing the Jewish community who advise us on our policies, and help us to deliver education programmes off and on our platforms. Our partners are also able to report content that concerns them directly to us, often providing invaluable additional context that can help us enforce our rules.

Late Friday night, one of our partners contacted us regarding recent posts on Instagram from the account of the UK artist Wiley. Following the temporary suspension of his Twitter account, Wiley began to post similar content about Jewish people on his Instagram account. This included screenshots of posts that had been deleted from Twitter, and a series of videos. 

We have trained teams who handle reports of hate speech content, and this includes those who specialize in the way hate is expressed against different communities, and team members with specific knowledge of the UK context. Immediately after the report at around 11pm on Friday 24th July, our dedicated teams began to investigate the posts from Wiley. 

As part of this investigation, we continued to gather expert contextual advice from our partners who represent the Jewish community. Their partnership and expertise is invaluable in understanding the nuances of antisemitic language. Our dedicated law enforcement engagement team was also made aware that a criminal report had been made to the Metropolitan Police. We work closely with the Met in situations such as this one, and our team stands ready to provide any assistance that we can.

These initial investigations led us to remove a number of posts from Wiley’s Instagram account. Generally, the first time we remove a user’s post we let them know why they broke our guidelines as we think it’s important they have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes. But in common with many platforms, on Facebook and Instagram if a user repeatedly breaks our rules we take a series of further enforcement actions. These can range from different types of restrictions on their activity to a total removal of their account. We have enforced this policy numerous times globally and locally regarding hate speech including the suspension and subsequent removal of numerous UK organizations and individuals from our platforms.

Over the course of Saturday 25th July, Wiley’s activity on Twitter led him to receive a further suspension from that platform for seven days. From this point on Saturday morning, his use of Instagram to post videos increased significantly. During this time we continued our investigations into his posts, and removed further pieces of content that violated our hate speech guidelines, subsequently placing his account in a seven day block. This means the user is not able to log in for seven days, and subsequently cannot post or message other users. That block was put in place just over 24 hours from the first report from our partners. The account will continue to be monitored and its content reviewed.

I hope that you will find this update today useful. We absolutely recognize that we always have more work to do in tackling complex and evolving situations like this one. Hate speech has no place on our platforms and we will continue to update you on how we evolve our approaches and policies to counter it.

Steve Hatch
VP | Northern Europe

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#NoSafeSpaceForJewHate campaign goes global, with Jewish communities around the world walking out of Twitter and other social media platforms, along with celebrities, to protest antisemitic hatred

The #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate campaign has launched today and gone global, with Jewish communities around the world, including in Australia and the United States, joining British Jews in walking out of Twitter and other social media platforms for 48 hours to protest antisemitic hatred on the platforms.

The hashtag #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate has also been trending on Twitter, while numerous politicians from across the political spectrum and celebrities have joined the walkout, which began as the idea of actress Tracy Ann Oberman, with whom we are proud to be closely associated, who was joined by activists including Saul Freeman, Fiona Sharpe and others.

Celebrity backers include the historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore, former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, actors Jason Isaacs and Eddie Marsan, the broadcaster Ian Dale, the comedy writer Armando Iannucci, musician Billy Bragg, and Sarah Brown, the non-profit executive and wife of a former Prime Minister.

Emma Barnett, the BBC presenter, also gave an impassioned monologue on her radio show about why Wiley’s antisemitism – which was the trigger for the walkout – “burns deep”, while Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has written to the chief executives of Twitter and Facebook (which owns Instagram) accusing them of complicity for not doing more to stamp out antisemitism on their platforms.

Those who oppose antisemitic racism are encouraged to join the walkout and to add the #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism profile badge in solidarity.

You can keep up with Campaign Against Antisemitism’s updates during the walkout at antisemitism.org/news or by subscribing to our e-mail updates and switching them from weekly updates to daily updates.

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As Twitter and Instagram fail to remove Wiley’s antisemitism-strewn accounts, CAA and allies set to begin 48-hour walkout

Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies are walking out from Twitter and Instagram for 48 hours on Monday and Tuesday after the social networks refused to close the social media accounts of the musician known as Wiley over his unhinged incitement against Jews.

A raft of celebrities, ministers and commentators are standing behind the walkout, with #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate now a major trending hashtag on Twitter.

On Friday, Campaign Against Antisemitism called for the prosecution of Wiley, the revocation of his MBE, and the closure of his social media accounts by Twitter and Facebook, which owns Instagram. Wiley has already been dropped by his management.

The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has joined our call for the social networks to be held accountable as large amounts of antisemitic material remained available despite some being deleted by the networks in what appears to have been a token intervention.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Wiley has been tweeting and instagramming vile antisemitism including calling for Jews to be shot and for ‘black people’ to go to ‘war’ with Jews. He clearly has deeply-held antisemitic beliefs based on unhinged conspiracy theories that in our experience are indicative of long-term exposure to Jew-hatred.

“Instead of acting immediately to close down Wiley’s accounts, Twitter and Facebook have decided to protect this racist, with Twitter deleting only a few token tweets and leaving most of Wiley’s incitement to racial hatred online. They have decided to allow a racist to continue to use their platforms to reach hundreds of thousands of people. That is why we are walking out from these social networks and we are heartened to see so many decent people standing with us in doing the same.”

The walkout began as the idea of actress Tracy Ann Oberman, who we are proud to be closely associated with, who was joined by activists including Saul Freeman, Fiona Sharpe and others.

Those who oppose antisemitic racism are encouraged to join the walkout and to add the #TogetherAgainstAntisemitism profile badge in solidarity.

You can keep up with Campaign Against Antisemitism’s updates during the walkout at antisemitism.org/news or by subscribing to our e-mail updates and switching them from weekly updates to daily updates.

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Wiley must immediately apologise and make amends for antisemitic rant or no respectable label or manager should ever work with him again

The British rapper Wiley has spent the day delivering an antisemitic rant on Twitter, comparing Jews to the Ku Klux Klan, making comments about Jewish power and control of the “system” and insisting repeatedly that “Israel does not belong to you”.

Among the comments were:

  • “Is it anti semetic [sic] to say Jewish people have power?’
  • “If you work for a company owned by 2 Jewish men and you challenge the Jewish community in anyway of course you will get fired”
  • “My ex manager was South Africa/ Jewish and I promise you he taught me so much about how this all works I was shocked [sic]”
  • “Red Necks Are the KKK and Jewish people are the Law…Work that out [sic]”
  • “Listen to me Jewish community Israel is not your country I’m sorry”; Jewish community ya too touchy anyway Israel is not yours hold that”; “Israel does not belong to you”; “I don’t care Cos Israel is ours what about that”; and “Israel is ours who wants to talk about that?”; a sentiment also repeated here; here; and here
  • “Certain people out here actually using hitlers tricks and I don’t like hitler just saying tho [sic]”
  • “In some cases the oppressed become the oppressor [sic]”
  • “The Star of David that’s our ting [sic]”
  • “I’m not anti semetic I am anti slippery people there’s a difference [sic]”

Some other tweets in the rant can be accessed here; here; here; here; here; here; here; here; and here.

Wiley’s repeated claim that “Israel does not belong to you”, accompanied by the assertion that “Israel is ours who wants to talk about that?”, as well as his claim that “The Star of David that’s our ting [sic]”, suggests that he may be espousing views associated with the hateful Black Israelite Hebrews movement, which has been known to harass Jews and has been connected to at least one violent antisemitic shooting in the United States.

Wiley’s racist ramblings, which he apparently referred to as “Black History Lesson For Today”, come after Ice Cube tweeted a picture of an antisemitic mural and several other celebrities have promoted the antisemitic hate preacher Louis Farrakhan.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Likening Jews to the KKK is a hideous antisemitic slur, which Wiley can add to the antisemitic tropes he has tweeted about Jewish power and Jews in business. He joins a number of celebrities who have promoted antisemitic themes or individuals in recent weeks, some of whom have apologised and sought rehabilitation. Wiley must immediately do the same, otherwise no respectable label or manager should work with him ever again.”

https://twitter.com/WileyCEO/status/1286611940836544518
https://twitter.com/WileyCEO/status/1286615262003900416
https://twitter.com/WileyCEO/status/1286616589001986048
https://twitter.com/WileyCEO/status/1286616759575941120
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Success for CAA as Twitter reverses locks on accounts with Stars of David, but questions remain as to why this policy was in place at all

After Campaign Against Antisemitism reported that Twitter was locking accounts featuring Stars of David in their profile pictures, Twitter is reviewing its policy, which it claims was directed at ‘yellow stars’ specifically, which it categorised as “hateful imagery”.

Several Twitter users recently contacted Campaign Against Antisemitism reporting that their accounts had been locked, and Twitter provided the following rationale: “What happened? We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically for: Violating our rules against posting hateful imagery. You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. As a result, we have locked your account.”

Twitter appeared to have deemed the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism and Jewish pride, to be “hateful imagery”, and was locking the accounts of users who displayed it.

Now Twitter has claimed that the policy was directed only at ‘yellow stars’. Yet the Stars of David in the profile pictures of locked accounts that we saw also included artistic blue Stars of David and graffitied white Stars of David.

Twitter has claimed in its statement that “While the majority of cases were correctly actioned, some accounts highlighted recently were mistakes and have now been restored.”

We are pleased that Twitter has taken remedial action in this individual cases, however questions remain as to whether this was a genuine policy ineptly administered, or whether Twitter has provided an after-the-fact rationalisation for why the accounts of Jewish users displaying their identities were locked.

In response to Twitter’s statement, Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Only one of the accounts locked featured a yellow star, and it very clearly did so as a means of reclaiming the yellow stars used by the Nazis. This is precisely the kind of inept response to antisemitism that we have come to expect from Twitter, which just last week tried to convince us that the viral antisemitic #JewishPrivilege hashtag was legitimate.

“We would happily help Twitter, but they largely ignore us when we approach them, which we take as a reflection of their inconsistency in addressing this. It seems that Twitter prefers to go after Jewish users who proudly display their identity but not after antisemitic users who unabashedly promote anti-Jewish vitriol.”

Others also observed the locking of accounts with Stars of David in their profile pictures.

Recently, Twitter refused to take action against the viral antisemitic hashtag #JewishPrivilege, and earlier this year the social media giant was forced to apologise for permitting advertisements to be micro-targeted at neo-Nazis and other bigots.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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CAA reveals that Twitter deems Jewish Star of David to be “hateful imagery” and is locking accounts of proud Jews who display it

Twitter has deemed the Star of David, a symbol of Judaism and Jewish pride, to be “hateful imagery”, and is locking the accounts of users who display it.

Several Twitter users have contacted Campaign Against Antisemitism in recent days reporting that their accounts have been locked, and Twitter has provided the following rationale: “What happened? We have determined that this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically for: Violating our rules against posting hateful imagery. You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. As a result, we have locked your account.”

The social media platform advises users that if they delete the “hateful imagery”, i.e. the Star of David, the account may be unlocked.

The Stars of David in the profile pictures of locked accounts vary from artistic blue Stars of David and graffitied white Stars of David to, most ironically, a portfolio of yellow Stars of David.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It is deplorable enough that Twitter consistently fails to act against antisemitism on its platform, but now it is taking action against Jews for the simple crime of showing pride in their identity by displaying a Star of David. It never fails to astound just how low Twitter is prepared to go.

“So often social media companies claim that they lack the resources to tackle hate on their platforms, but Twitter has put the lie to that claim by demonstrating that it does have the resources, but chooses to target the benign symbol of a victimised minority instead of the countless racists who use its platform with impunity.

“Twitter must immediately restore these accounts, apologise to the owners, and pledge finally to take robust action against the antisemites whom it has enabled for so long.”

Others also observed the locking of accounts with Stars of David in their profile pictures.

Recently, Twitter refused to take action against the viral antisemitic hashtag #JewishPrivilege, and earlier this year the social media giant was forced to apologise for permitting advertisements to be micro-targeted at neo-Nazis and other bigots.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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Twitter is inciting anti-Jewish hatred after it refuses to act against antisemitic #JewishPrivilege viral hashtag

Twitter has refused to take action as an antisemitic hashtag, #JewishPrivilege, has gone viral over the past 24 hours.

The abusive tweets were remarkable for the range of antisemitic motifs they adopted, as a small sample of examples illustrates.

One user wrote, in a post reminiscent of classical Christian antisemitism and nineteenth-century philosophical antisemitism: “#JewishPrivilege is being born into a world where your ancestors have ‘progressive-ly’ transformed an entire civilisation into a Jewish ‘utopia’ by inverting its formerly Christian values into their exact opposites.”

Another said: “#JewishPrivilege is running the Slave Trade, owning the Slave Ships and owning the Cotton Plantations but constantly blaming Slavery on White people with the very media that you completely control.”

Contrast that post with yet another: “#JewishPrivilege is shaming whites while pretending to be one of us…”.

Radical left-wing antisemitism blames the Jews for being white, while for white supremacist antisemites the Jews are not white enough.

The hashtag was also then co-opted by Jews and allies attacking it.

However, on being challenged to take action against the hashtag, Twitter reportedly refused, saying that it did not breach its terms of service, which evidently permit the platform to be used for the dissemination of racist material.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The idea that Jews are a ‘privileged’ group is a slur designed to deny that antisemitism exists and to imply that Jews are a cause of racism towards other minorities. It is an antisemitic concept targeting a people who have suffered relentless persecution, exile, mass murder and the Holocaust, and it has no place in decent discourse.

“It is horrifying to see that #JewishPrivilege has been one of Twitter’s most popular hashtags of the past 24 hours. That it has gone viral demonstrates how ‘unpriveleged’ Jews in fact are. The accounts spewing this anti-Jewish hatred will still be there tomorrow, retweeted in the thousands as Twitter predictably but disgracefully refuses to take any action, adding yet another entry to the platform’s long record of enabling racism against Jews. Twitter’s refusal to act is not just tone-deaf but brazen. Antisemites are able to use Twitter to reach millions and by failing to act on anti-Jewish incitement Twitter is enabling it. Social networks are allowing racism to run rampant and it is high time they were regulated like all other mass media.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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TikTok removes videos featuring song lyrics “We’re going on a trip to a place called Auschwitz, it’s shower time”, but only after its own algorithm meant they were viewed over 6.5 million times

TikTok, the popular social media video platform, has reportedly removed numerous videos that promoted a sickening antisemitic song, but only after its own algorithm ensured that they were viewed over 6.5 million times.

The song included the words “We’re going on a trip to a place called Auschwitz, it’s shower time” and apparently appeared on the platform on Sunday. One video featuring the song showed a giant robot scorpion with a swastika trapping and gassing people.

That video received more than six million views, a number eerily corresponding to the number of Jewish victims of the Nazis. Other videos using the song to accompany Holocaust-related graphics garnered another half million viewers. In all, nearly 100 TikTok users made use of the song for their videos.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It was incredibly distressing to watch this sickening TikTok video aimed at children showing a swastika-bearing robot grabbing and incinerating Jews as the music poked fun at Jewish men, women and children being killed with poison gas at Auschwitz

“TikTok has a particular obligation to tackle this content fast because it specialises in delivering viral videos to children and young adults when they are most impressionable, and yet our research has shown that TikTok has become one of the fastest vectors for transmission of memes mocking the Holocaust. We cannot overstate how damaging it is for children to be bombarded with this sort of extreme racist content. They are being radicalised and groomed by extremists when they are using their smartphones and tablets without parental supervision. Social networks keep proving that they will not tackle this incitement. They must be forced to by regulation or we will scarcely recognise future generations.”

This is not the first time that videos on TikTok have been used to mock the Holocaust, and the platform has been shown to be infested with far-right antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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TikTok infested with far-right antisemitism and Holocaust denial, according to new report published just weeks after CAA called attention to the problem

The social media platform TikTok is infested with far-right antisemitism and Holocaust denial, according to a new report.

The report comes just weeks after Campaign Against Antisemitism called attention to the problem of mockery of the Holocaust on the popular platform.

The findings are particularly worrisome given that Ofcom has also just reported that the COVID-19 lockdown has meant that teenagers are spending record amounts of time on the platform.

The report by the Institute for Counter Terrorism at the University of Haifa, titled “Spreading Hate on TikTok”, scanned the platform from February to May 2020 and found numerous antisemitic posts, including Adolf Hitler speeches, postings of the ‘Sieg heil’ salute, neo-Nazi inspired violence, white supremacist symbols and Holocaust denial.

TikTok has 1.5 billion users, 41 percent of whom are between the ages of 16 and 24. Although its terms of service prohibit users under the age of thirteen, it is believed, based on their videos, that many users are below the minimum age.

The CST also recently published a report into far-right activity on alternative social media platforms such as Bitchute, Telegram, Gab and 4chan, where it found thousands of “easily accessible, extreme and violent” videos, memes and posts.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

New app to teach children about the Kindertransport through educational game

A new educational app has been launched by the National Holocaust Centre and Museum that creates an interactive story based on the institution’s Kindertransport exhibition aimed at primary school children.

The Nottinghamshire-based museum is inspired by the urgency for “Holocaust education…to keep pace with popular culture.”

The app, called ‘The Journey’, allows users to take the role of a Jewish boy living in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1938.

According to the JC, Kindertransport survivor Ruth Barnett said the exhibition gave primary pupils “an experience of what life was like for children of their age at the time of Hitler’s Reich…The possibilities for a user of this app are many times greater than those in the exhibition.”

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Leading KCL academic makes the case for regulation of social media citing landmark conviction of Alison Chabloz brought about by CAA

A leading academic at King’s College London has published an op-ed making the case for regulation of social media citing the landmark conviction of antisemite Alison Chabloz, which was brought about by Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Daniel Allington, a senior lecturer who is also a volunteer with Campaign Against Antisemitism, wrote about how “conspiracy theories pumped out by unregulated social media platforms” had a real life impact on whether people followed Government rules regarding the COVID-19 lockdown. Campaign Against Antisemitism has for years similarly been warning that antisemitic material online was not only problematic in itself but also had real world implications.

Dr Allington noted the discrepancy that when unfounded conspiracy theories are propagated on broadcast radio or television they are challenged by a regulator, Ofcom, as for example in the recent case of the antisemitic hate preacher David Icke. But the same conspiracy theories face no sanction when promoted online, despite the equal if not greater danger they pose. 80,000 viewers saw Mr Icke’s interview on the television; six million watched it on YouTube. But whereas the London Live channel was sanctioned by Ofcom, the social media platform faced no regulatory censure.

Dr Allington rightly noted that this is because “social media platforms do not regard themselves as publishers but rather as communications networks,” and just as what newspapers and television stations present to readers and viewers is regulated, so should social media companies be regulated for what they permit to be uploaded onto their platforms and promoted through their algorithms. Social media companies already do make decisions, Dr Allington observed, about what they allow to remain on their platforms, similar to publishers, but unlike publishers they are not regulated.

Turning to the case of Ms Chabloz, Dr Allington recounted that she was found guilty of broadcasting antisemitic songs on YouTube, a conviction resulting from sustained legal action by Campaign Against Antisemitism. Ms Chabloz was prosecuted under the Malicious Communications Act, but Dr Allington rightly noted that the problem is far greater than one offender and that the social media companies should be penalised for publishing her material, but this cannot be achieved under Communications legislation.

“Social media companies are not communication networks like the telephone — they are media companies and publishers. That needs to be recognised now,” Dr Allington concluded, observing that social media companies did take action following crackdowns on the mass copyright violations that used to occur when users would upload films and music videos without permission from the owners, and therefore they are in principle capable of changing, but it requires the Government to act.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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CAA reveals that Katie Hopkins, who has now been banned from Twitter permanently, tweeted about “tight” Jews and lied about it

Campaign Against Antisemitism can reveal that Katie Hopkins, who has now been banned from Twitter permanently, tweeted about “tight” Jews and then tried to lie about it to us.

Ms Hopkins, who built and then destroyed her career as a publicity-craving ‘provocateur’, losing a show on LBC and a column in the Daily Mail, has now also lost access to Twitter, permanently according to reports.

Ms Hopkins has long courted controversy with remarks about various minorities, including Jews.

In a particularly brazen episode, Campaign Against Antisemitism can reveal that it has confronted Ms Hopkins after being alerted to a tweet of hers from 2014 in which she wrote: “Homework ‘what’s the difference between Orthodox Jew & Reform Jew.’ One lot are tight. One lot are tight & bearded. Dismissed as unhelpful”.

When Campaign Against Antisemitism contacted her for comment, she responded: “Thank you. This is a fabricated tweet and does not exist on my account. It represents clear defamation with the intention of causing serious harm on publication.”

We are familiar with the law on libel, having won cases before, so we persisted, showing Ms Hopkins the tweet on her timeline. She then shamelessly deleted it and claimed it did not exist, telling us: “This is a fabricated tweet and does not exist on my timeline. My unequivocal support for Israel and my Jewish family is abundantly clear — both on Twitter and through my video documentary in Israel and Palestine.”

It was not the first time that Ms Hopkins’ Twitter activity had aroused attention. For example in 2017 she retweeted a neo-Nazi with the username “AntiJuden” followed by the SS symbol, and a swasitka on their profile image. When confronted that time, Ms Hopkins made a mealy-mouthed apology.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Katie Hopkins not only tweeted vile racist stereotypes about Jews being ‘tight’, she also told us barefaced lies about it and refused to apologise. Her ban from Twitter is just one more positive step in her ostracisation from civil society.”

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Jameela Jamil is latest celebrity to share and then delete Louis Farrakhan video on social media

Jameela Jamil has become the latest celebrity to share a Louis Farrakhan video on social media.

Ms Jamil shared a 1990 clip of the antisemitic hate preacher with the caption “Someone please tell me the name of this extraordinary man who so perfectly sums up white fear in under a minute.”

She deleted the clip after criticism.

Mr Farrakhan has called Judaism a “gutter religion” and had claimed that the Jews would face “God’s ovens” if they continued to oppose him, in a sick reference to the extermination camps of the Holocaust. He has also praised the Nazi leader, saying “Hitler was a very great man”. In addition, Mr Farrakhan has alleged that “Israelis and Zionist Jews” were involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The clip was also shared by American celebrities Jessica Chastain and Chelsea Handler, and it comes just days after the rapper Ice Cube was also embroiled in controversy for sharing an antisemitic image and other memes.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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Prominent law firm Mishcon de Reya fires antisemitic employee who referred to “f***ing” Jews and “Zionist cockroaches” and compared Israel to Nazis on social media

The prominent law firm Mishcon de Reya has reportedly fired an employee who made antisemitic and incendiary comments on social media, including referring to “f***ing” Jews and “Zionist cockroaches” and comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.

The unnamed employee had been working at the law firm as a conflicts analyst, having previously studied law at the University of Manchester and served as a paralegal at other law firms. He was discovered to have been tweeting inflammatory and antisemitic comments in his own name over the past eight years.

Following an England defeat in the Euro 2012 football tournament, he tweeted: “Why are you all so happy? You were all licking England’s arse all along you f***ing Jew supporters.” He has also referred to a “Jew goal” in another tweet related to football.

At other times, he has tweeted that “Israel is no better than Nazi Germany” and that the “Nazi Israel state” had “absolutely no right to exist”, amid other calls for the destruction of Israel and claims that that “there’s no such thing as #Israel”. He also referred to Jews as “Zionist cockroaches”. The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

He has accused “Zionists” of “controlling the lamestream media” and claimed that he might be criticised for his comments “with accusations of ‘antisemitism’”.

He reportedly deleted his Twitter account after another user sent a selection of his tweets to his law firm, which, after a week-long investigation, terminated his employment.

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School and pupil apologise for TikTok video mocking Holocaust victims while TikTok itself does absolutely nothing

A pupil and her school have apologised after she posted a video on the online platform Tik Tok that mocked Holocaust victims.

The video, which we are not showing in order to protect the child’s identity, featured the schoolgirl making gestures to music as the caption joked: “What is bald and 100 metres long? The queue outside aushtwich [sic]”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism brought the video to the school’s attention, and the pupil has expressed her “deep remorse” and “offered a sincere apology” as she removed the video, with a third party who shared the video on Twitter also having removed it. The schoolgirl will also be writing letters of apology to those who have complained.

Campaign Against Antisemitism applauds the school for its swift action and the pupil for recognising the problem and learning from the incident. We shall not be naming the school.

Regrettably, while the pupil showed the good sense to take responsibility, apologise and remove the video, TikTok, the online platform particularly popular with impressionable children, did not show similar acumen. This is just the latest in a series of videos mocking Holocaust victims and survivors found on the platform, and so far the company has refused to take action.

A spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We applaud the pupil and her school for taking swift action to remove the video and apologise, but we condemn TikTok for allowing grotesque memes to continue to circulate among impressionable minors. How long will it take before social media companies begin to take social responsibility for what they permit to be published in their names?”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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Another TikTok user puts up video mocking Holocaust survivors and receives almost 1 million likes as CAA demands the company take action

Another user of the popular online video platform, TikTok, has published a video mocking Holocaust survivors, and it has received almost one million ‘likes’.

The video shows the user, known as “olivermcd54”, imagining himself talking to a “cute Jewish girl” and then the girl, also played by him, lifts up her sleeve to give him her ‘number’ in a grotesque allusion to the Nazi practice of tattooing inmates at the Auschwitz concentration camp with a number. (We have obscured the user’s face as it is unclear whether he is a minor or not.)

The user as used the hashtag #ww2memes and, in an apparent effort at self-deprecation, has noted of the video: “this isn’t very funny”.

It comes after Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to the employer of another user, Bradley Brooker, who made a similar video on the same platform. TikTok must act immediately to remove this appalling content from its platform.

A spokesman for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Once again we are seeing how a disgraceful meme mocking Holocaust survivors goes viral, with more videos produced and hundreds of thousands of approving ‘likes’. Children are quick learners, and TikTok, which is hugely popular with younger demographics, has become one of the fastest vectors for transmission of memes mocking the Holocaust. ​Social media companies cannot evade their responsibility for enabling anti-Jewish animus forever, and we will be writing to Tik Tok holding them to account.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

https://www.tiktok.com/@olivermcd54/video/6793686691346386181

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“I think the Jews are terrible people!”, says Facebook’s new AI chatbot after it learns from watching how humans speak online

Facebook’s new artificial intelligence chatbot, called Blender, is drawing negative attention for spewing antisemitic responses, such as “I think the Jews are terrible people!”

When asked about how it felt about the Jews, the chatbot also reportedly replied: “They are bad people and I think that’s why they have a lot of problems.” When asked why they were bad, it replied: “They are bad because of what they did to others, not just to the Jews.” It added: “They killed other people who are not Jewish, and they do this all the time.”

Blender is claimed to be the largest open-domain chatbot ever and to outperform existing approaches to generating dialogue while “feeling more human”, promising to make interactions with conversational AI systems like Alex, Siri and Cortana more natural. Blender was released about two weeks ago and has been learning from some 1.5 billion conversations on the online platform Reddit, where users are particularly unfiltered in their language and views.

The result is that, whether or not the chatbot is learning better how to communicate with humans, it is certainly picking up the antisemitic prejudices that sadly prevail in many of these chat rooms, enabled by the social media companies that facilitate them and which refuse to take action against abusers. A previous chatbot from Microsoft was closed down just a few hours after its launch several years ago because it had quickly adopted the prejudices of the human it was observing.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “Facebook’s AI bot is spewing antisemitic responses because, like a parrot, that is what it has learned from watching human behaviour online. Microsoft’s chatbot was shut down just a few hours after its launch a few years ago for the same reason. These AI models are a mirror of the discourse facilitated by social media outlets and it’s time that Facebook and other tech giants look at the reflection and recognise their culpability.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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CAA writes to employer of star of sick viral TikTok video mocking Holocaust victims

Campaign Against Antisemitism is writing to the employer of a man who uploaded a viral video to TikTok which appears to mock Holocaust survivors.

Posted on the popular video sharing platform recently with the hashtag “#darkhumour”, the short clip by Bradley Brooker, a traffic consultant and charity football player, has gone viral, attracting tens of thousands of ‘likes’ on the platform.

In the clip, Mr Brooker acts the parts of both a Jewish taxi passenger and the taxi driver. The clip begins beneath the caption: “Jewish guy getting in my taxi”, with Mr Brooker, as the taxi driver, asking “Hey, what’s your name”. Now playing the part of the passenger, Mr Brooker mimes checking his arm tattoo, before singing, now as the taxi driver, “No I don’t want your number” from the song Scrubs by TLC.

The number appears to be a reference to the Nazi practice of tattooing inmates at the Auschwitz concentration camp with a number.

When confronted over the grotesque video by a member of the public, Mr Brooker doubled down, insisting that it was both humorous and educational.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is now writing to Mr Brooker’s employer and to the charity he represents, seeking his removal. We have also asked TikTok to remove the video.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

https://www.tiktok.com/@bradleybrooker1/video/6820725785976982789

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YouTube reverses itself and decides PewDiePie, who paid people to hold up a sign saying “Death to all Jews”, is not only welcome on its platform but shouldn’t appear anywhere else

The online video platform Youtube has overcome its earlier reservations about the online gaming celebrity and provocateur PewDiePie, agreeing that he will make the website his exclusive online stage.

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, who is known on YouTube as PewDiePie, is a Swedish gamer based in the UK whose YouTube channel has over 104 million subscribers and 25 billion views. He has previously come under fire for antisemitic videos and statements, and at one point pledged to make a $50,000 donation to fight antisemitism, before withdrawing the donation after pressure from fans. He was been listed by Time as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2016, and the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website has described itself as “the world’s #1 PewDiePie fan site”.

Youtube, which is owned by Google, had at one point shunned PewDiePie in the wake of some of his racist outbursts, as did Disney. In 2016 he was also temporarily blocked from Twitter after joking that he had joined ISIS.

However, YouTube has now apparently decided the PewDiePie and his views are fit for its platform.

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.

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After years of CAA pressure, conspiracy theorist David Icke is finally banned from Facebook and YouTube, but not over his antisemitism; and he’s still on Twitter

After years of pressure from Campaign Against Antisemitism, the conspiracy theorist and antisemitic hate preacher David Icke has finally been banned from two social media platforms – but not over his antisemitism. Meanwhile, a third platform has yet to take action against Mr Icke.

Facebook and YouTube resolved to remove Mr Icke from their platforms in recent days, but it comes after years of promoting the antisemitic commentator, much of whose website traffic is directed from social media. Despite extensive dossiers having been provided to the tech giants by Campaign Against Antisemitism in the past detailing Mr Icke’s racist claims about Jews, he has only now been banned – and it was not even related to antisemitism.

Instead, Mr Icke’s YouTube channel and Facebook page were removed because of his misinformation campaign regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been viewed some 30 million times (although as part of this campaign he has also claimed that Israel was using the COVID-19 crisis to “test its technology”).

It is, however, understood that at least one other Facebook page relating to Mr Icke is still live.

Regrettably, another social media platform – Twitter – has yet to take any action against Mr Icke. Twitter did, however, find time and cause to suspend the account of Michael Oren, the esteemed historian and former Israeli ambassador to the United States, for reasons that have reportedly not been disclosed by the company.

Mr Icke uses social media, his books and his stage performances to incite hatred. His preaching is so absurd that since the 1990s he has been dismissed as a crank, but because he is dismissed, there has been no major opposition to him and he has built up a following of thousands upon thousands of disciples whom he has persuaded to adamantly believe that the world is in the grip of a conspiracy run by the “Rothschild Zionists”. His repertoire includes conspiracy myths and tropes classified as antisemitic according to the International Definition of Antisemitism. Campaign Against Antisemitism has successfully persuaded some venues to pull out of hosting his events. Last month, Ofcom sanctioned the television channel London Live for airing an interview with Mr Icke on COVID-19.

Campaign Against Antisemitism will continue to press social media companies and other outlets to bar Mr Icke and other antisemites from their forums.

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Antisemitism and Pesach: a message for CAA’s supporters from Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Senior Rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community

As the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, begins, Rabbi Joseph Dweck, Senior Rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community, has recorded a message for Campaign Against Antisemitism’s supporters on antisemitism through the ages, and the significance of Pesach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_nplcuP6wc&feature=youtu.be
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Campaign Against Antisemitism stands #UnitedAgainstRacism, and Twitter users react by expressing the very antisemitism we were calling out

Campaign Against Antisemitism marked the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observed annually on 21st March, with a video and graphic for social media highlighting how, as COVID-19 spreads across the globe, the virus of antisemitism mutates to keep pace.

Remarkably, numerous Twitter users reacted to our meme – which showed how antisemites are using the coronavirus to attack Jews – by posting expressions of the very antisemitism we were calling out.

One user complained, “For goodness sake you stoop to this. Shameless,” while another responded with: “Isn’t the spotlight on the Jew for a while? Awww, your true colours come shining through, victimhood like yours is a real disease that is incurable. It’s not about the Jew, get over it.” Yet another user replied that we should “Rot in hell. And spare us with your damn “#UnitedAgainstRacism”…It’s you the bloody #Racist her,” while another said: “Nothing is beneath you Apartheidists.”

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Twitter apologises for allowing advertisements to be micro-targeted at neo-Nazis

Twitter has reportedly apologised after an investigation found that it permitted advertisements to be micro-targeted at neo-Nazis and other bigots, as well as vulnerable young people suffering from eating disorders.

The social media giant allows brands to target their advertisements at users who search for particular words and phrases, in order to pinpoint users most likely to be interested in their product or service.

An investigation found that companies could send adverts to users who have searched for words such as “white supremacists”. It also showed that targeting people in the UK using the term “neo-Nazi” could reach as many as 81,000 people.

Twitter has been criticised in the past over extremism on its platform. In a statement, the company said that its “preventative measures include banning certain sensitive or discriminatory terms, which we update on a continuous basis. In this instance, some of these terms were permitted for targeting purposes. This was an error.

“We’re very sorry this happened and as soon as we were made aware of the issue, we rectified it. We continue to enforce our ads policies, including restricting the promotion of content in a wide range of areas, including inappropriate content targeting minors.”

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Report claims Government will hold social media executives responsible for online antisemitism

In a first for Britain, social media executives will be held responsible for antisemitism and racism on their platforms, according to The Times. New regulations due to be published this month will legislate to tighten regulatory control of abuse on social media, under the auspices of Ofcom, the communications watchdog. The rules will come into effect after the UK leaves the European Union, which is scheduled to happen on 31st January. 

Under the new system, the Government expects to hold British senior management personally responsible for abuse, with each social media giant required to have at least one British-based director responsible for UK operations under a “statutory duty of care”. Technology firms are likely to be asked to provide the funding to ensure regulation is properly managed and penalties that social media companies may face are said to be “proportionate”.

However the report claims that stronger measures including calling on service providers to block websites or apps from being used in the UK have been dropped.

This follows a consultation launched under Theresa May’s government last summer into various proposals to regulate social media. This policy has in turn been adopted by Boris Johnson’s government which pledged to “legislate to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online — protecting children from online abuse and harms, protecting the most vulnerable from accessing harmful content, and ensuring there is no safe space for terrorists to hide online.” Codes of practice will be drawn up by Ofcom.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has long called for tougher regulations on social media sites and that social networks proactively search for and remove hate speech from their platforms. It is reassuring to hear that social media sites will be held responsible for cleaning up their own sites. It is vital that Ofcom ensures that complex hate crime on social media is properly identified and understood, and that antisemitism is carefully monitored.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has provided antisemitism training to Ofcom’s executives.

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YouTuber PewDiePie apologises to his 100m followers for “messing up” by promising to donate $50,000 to fight antisemitism

One of the world’s biggest YouTubers has reversed his decision to donate $50,000 to an American organisation that fights prejudice, principally against Jews.

Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, who is known on YouTube as PewDiePie, is a Swedish gamer based in the UK whose YouTube channel has over 100 million subscribers and 23 billion video views. He recently pledged to donate the $50,000, apparently to quell criticism over a series of antisemitic videos and statements he has made over the past two years, including appearances of Nazi imagery, Adolf Hitler and swastikas in his videos. Although Mr Kjellberg has taken down a number of the offending videos, some were viewed millions of times before removal.

In 2017, he paid two Indian men to film themselves unveiling a sign that read “Death to all Jews”, following which Disney’s Maker Studios, a network of YouTube celebrities, cut ties with Mr Kjellberg. He was also suspended from Twitter in 2016 after joking about having joining ISIS.

It seems that Mr Kjellberg reversed the pledge to donate $50,000 after pushback from his fans. In a video in which he appeared to be wearing a replica of a German iron cross, he reflected that “I made the mistake of picking a charity I was advised to instead of picking a charity that I’m personally passionate about, which is 100% my fault”, adding: “sorry for messing this up”.

Despite building a significant following — such that he was listed by Time as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2016 — Mr Kjellberg continues to behave after the fashion of an alt-right provocateur, and indeed the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website describes itself as “the world’s #1 PewDiePie fan site”.

When a media personality with 100 million followers, many of them children, who has a history of broadcasting and laughing at antisemitism, makes a special broadcast wearing clothing emblazoned with a symbol resembling an iron cross and apologising for proposing to make a donation to fight antisemitism, his message could not be clearer.

The platforms that host Mr Kjellberg and the fans who indulge him should reconsider their affiliation to his channel.

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Prime Minister reveals 80,000 Britons used chat room for neo-Nazis

A white nationalist and neo-Nazi online discussion forum received 80,000 visits from people in the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May has revealed.

According to The Times, the work by the Home Office’s Office for Security and Counter Terrorism shows that the white nationalist and neo-Nazi discussion forum had 12 million posts during its lifetime. In one month it had 800,000 visits, with 80,000 appearing to originate from the UK.

The Prime Minister joined world leaders at the Online Extremism Summit in Paris to focus on international efforts to stop social media being used to organise and promote terrorism. The summit was prompted by the terrorist attack at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in March, in which 51 people died during an attack that was live streamed on Facebook.

At the summit, the Prime Minister signed up to the “Christchurch Call To Action” pledge to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. She called for consistent standards to keep internet users safe from harm and said that it is time to confront the growing threat from the far-right. Home Office figures published last year showed that the number of people referred to Prevent, the counter-extremism programme, for concerns over extreme right-wing activity rose by more than a third to 1,312 out of 7,318 referrals in 2017-2018, up from 968 in the previous year.

The summit was also attended by Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s Chief Executive and Sir Nick Clegg, Head of Global Affairs at Facebook.

National Action, a neo-Nazi group with deep rooted antisemitic ideologies, was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in December 2016 following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. Under section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000, membership of a proscribed terrorist organisation is a criminal offence.

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Facebook bans far-right groups, including the BNP and EDL, but antisemitism continues to flourish on platform

Facebook has reportedly banned a number of far-right groups, including the British National Party (BNP) and English Defence League (EDL) from its platform.

The groups, as well as key members of their leadership, have been banned from both Facebook and Instagram for violating rules around promoting hate and violence.

Britain First, the National Front and Knights Templar International have also been removed, as well as convicted neo-Nazi Jack Renshaw, National Action’s former spokesman.

National Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in December 2016 following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. Under section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000, membership of a proscribed terrorist organisation is a criminal offence.

Other individuals reportedly banned include former BNP leader Nick Griffin, Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, EDL member Paul Ray, Knights Templar International’s Jim Dowson and the National Front’s Tony Martin.

Facebook said it used an extensive process to work out which people or groups to designate as dangerous. This includes whether they have used hate speech and called for or directly carried out acts of violence against others based on factors such as race, ethnicity or national origin.

A spokeswoman for Facebook explained that: “Individuals and organisations who spread hate, or attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are, have no place on Facebook. Under our dangerous individuals and organisations policy, we ban those who proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence. The individuals and organisations we have banned today violate this policy, and they will no longer be allowed a presence on Facebook or Instagram. Posts and other content which expresses praise or support for these figures and groups will also be banned. Our work against organised hate is ongoing and we will continue to review individuals, organisations, pages, groups and content against our community standards.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes Facebook’s decision to take decisive action and proactively remove extremists from the platform, however we regret that Facebook remains amongst the worst offenders when it comes to removing antisemitic incitement.

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Mark Zuckerberg refuses to back down over remarks that Holocaust denial should be permitted on Facebook and is not antisemitic hate speech

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has refused to back down after claiming that Holocaust denial did not constitute hate speech under Facebook’s so-called “community standards”.

In an interview with Recode on Tuesday, Mr Zuckerberg said, unprompted, that Holocaust deniers should be permitted to post their views on Facebook, going on to say: “I don’t think they’re intentionally getting it wrong.”

Facebook’s community standards state: “We define hate speech as a direct attack on people based on what we call protected characteristics – race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity and serious disability or disease.” It would therefore appear that Mr Zuckerberg does not consider Holocaust denial to be hate speech.

The German Justice Minister, Katarina Barley, was scathing, saying: “There must be no place for antisemitism. This includes verbal and physical attacks on Jews as well as the denial of the Holocaust.”

In response, on Wednesday Mr Zuckerberg attempted to clarify his comments. In an e-mail to Recode, he wrote, “I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that.” It therefore appears that Mr Zuckerberg truly wishes to suggest that Holocaust denial is not hate speech. His remarks are deeply irresponsible. At a time when misinformation is spread seemingly unabated, and young people in Britain and the United States have a woeful lack of knowledge about the Holocaust, a prominent leader like Mr Zuckerberg has a responsibility to clearly state that Holocaust denial is a form of antisemitic hatred.

There is no such thing as benign Holocaust denial. It is solely a means of inciting hatred against Jews by claiming that we fabricated the genocide of our people to extort money in the form of reparations. It is utterly abusive and Mr Zuckerberg must take responsibility for excising it from Facebook.

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Unilad should remove and apologise for promoting its David Icke video monologue to over a million people

The controversial viral social media site Unilad has produced a propaganda video for conspiracy theorist David Icke, whom Campaign against Antisemitism exposed in our own video last year.

The video, entitled “David Icke: Conspiracy, Illuminati & Lizards” is a ten-minute long monologue documentary which Unilad has promoted hailing Mr Icke as “the man whose life mission is to expose the nature of reality, inform on what is really happening behind the news headlines and who is really running the world. Full of conspiracy, the illuminati and lizards, we talk to him about his theories and incredible life story.”

The fact is that Mr Icke’s conspiracy theories are not harmless nonsense: they preach a world view in which the world is in the grip of a conspiracy run by the “Rothschild Zionists” who are the product of an alien “reptilian” bloodline. Mr Icke cites many prominent Jews around the world as evidence of “Rothschild Zionist” infiltration of global power structures.

His disciples believe his antisemitic theories about Jews and when we have drawn respectable venues’ attention to his views they have cancelled his appearances, but Unilad decided that he was worthy of a special video documentary.

Unilad’s video has been viewed 1.2 millions times on Facebook alone. It is atrocious that Unilad has decided to broadcast the repugnant views of Mr Icke to an even wider audience.

Complaints should be sent to [email protected].

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YouTube star David Vujanic, fêted by Jeremy Corbyn for opposing racism, apologises for years of antisemitic tweets

YouTube star David Vujanic, who was fêted by Jeremy Corbyn for his anti-racist work following an interview last week, has apologised for years of antisemitic tweets. Last week he interviewed Mr Corbyn who praised him, and was photographed clasping hands with him. The interview has now been deleted and so have the tweets.

Political blog Guido Fawkes discovered a number of antisemitic tweets, following which Campaign Against Antisemitism has unearthed even more.

Mr Vujanic had tweeted in 2012 that “Hitler was playing the Jew challenge game”.

In another message that year, he had said that “Jew goals are my specialty on FIFA”, a computer game. Some players of the game have taken to referring to a goal scored by one player who did very little on the back of skilful play by another player as a “Jew goal”, the implication being that Jews are lazy parasites benefitting from the work of others.

We also found evidence that Mr Vujanic subscribed to the stereotype of Jews as wealthy and miserly. In 2011 he tweeted: “#YouKnowSomeonesRich if they’re Jewish”. In 2012 he wrote: “My Jewish boy that has 15k in the bank asked for his 10p back that he borrowed me”. The same year he also wrote: “How can my friend @smythe92 PAINT his [tyre] rims black instead of getting new ones…..pains me to say he’s Jewish too.”

However some of Mr Vujanic’s comments are more recent. In 2014 he wrote: “As long as the USA is funded by the Zionist lobby. Violence outbreaks will remain. It’s all about the £££”.

Having been caught, Mr Vujanic has now apologised and deleted the tweets, writing: “Hi everyone, some of my old tweets have been unearthed and they’re absolutely vile. I want to apologise sincerely. My younger self was completely ignorant, unaware and stupid. These tweets do not represent my beliefs and views. Discrimination is NEVER acceptable. Love, David”

A spokesperson for Mr Corbyn said: “David Vujanic’s old tweets were absolutely vile and he is right to apologise for them and recognise that hate and discrimination have no place in our society.”

Mr Vujanic’s apology notwithstanding, questions remain over how Mr Corbyn’s team could possibly have set up an interview in which he fêted someone who had expressed clear antisemitic views as a leading light against racism. It is not the first time.

https://twitter.com/DavidVujanic/status/964461362956161025

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Facebook group frequented by young Conservative and UKIP activists reportedly a hotbed of antisemitism and far-right extremism

An influential group of young leaders, including the Chair of UKIP’s youth wing have been exposed as members of a Facebook group which spews antisemitic content.

Hope not Hate, a controversial anti-racism group, has revealed that a 200-member Facebook group entitled “Young Right Society” (YRS) has been found to be awash with antisemitic, Holocaust denying and racist material.

According to Hope not Hate, the group boasts a membership including known fascists, neo-Nazis and figures on the alt-right, such as Colin Robertson, alongside mainstream Conservative Party activists and the Chair of UKIP’s youth wing, Jamie Ross McKenzie. YRS positions itself as “a place for those who are on the Right (basically anything right of centre) to discuss politics, philosophy, and general Right-wing stuff with as little censorship or government intervention as possible” but this investigation suggests that the group is being used by some to propagate white supremacy, antisemitism, homophobia and other forms of hate.

One of the group’s moderators, Michael Brooks, wrote that he was “14 and 88” a shorthand code for “Heil Hitler” and the 14-word Nazi phrase: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” Mr Brooks has been pictured posing with notable politicians, including the former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, who has himself come under fire in recent weeks over comments on his radio station alleging Jewish disproportionate power over US politics. Mr Brooks was also allegedly part of a YRS contingent at a conference run by the far-right Traditional Britain Group (TBG). Three weeks earlier he had managed to have his photograph taken alongside Theresa May at the Conservative Party conference.

Mr Brooks’ disturbing views were on further display within the group in a series of racist comments he allegedly posted on the group, including a racist caption to a graph showing supposed population growth in sub-Saharan Africa stating: “Planet of the Apes isn’t science fiction, it’s a warning”. In another comment attributed to Mr Brooks by Hope not Hate, he allegedly wrote: “There is a riot happening in Dalston in North East London. In this thread we discuss the ethnicities and theories as to why they are biologically destined to engage in this behaviour :^)”. He also allegedly wrote that a “white identitarian, paramilitary organisation known as the ‘white shirts’ sounds kinda cool, even if it is larpy”, and posted supportive messages regarding the now infamous antisemitic, racist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in May.

Mr Brooks is further alleged to have argued for the changing of the YRS group banner into Nazi iconography to “weed out the weak and keep normies away” to which Jack Hadfield, a well known Breitbart writer and one of the group’s administrators reportedly replied: “Swastikas are unbritish [mate]. You’ve got the right aesthetic but it’s too autistic”. This is further supported by comments elsewhere within the group where he wrote: “you f***ing right wing faggots need to knock off the nazi/ethnonat stuff. It drives off Civics who I keep adding and are open to nationalistm [sic]”, further claiming: “I am 14 and 88, but even I know optics and recruiting normies.” “Normies” is often used as a word for people who are not yet fascists but might be targets for persuasion.

Another group administrator, Philip Donaghy, is also under fire. He is said to have posted an article from the Daily Stormer, a virulently antisemitic, far-right website, as well as giving tips to members on how to engage in racism and homophobia without detection from Facebook.

Another group administrator, Jack Hadfield reportedly described YRS as “a Fascist-Juggalo group with traditionalism interest”, claiming: “we tolerate other ideologies but make no mistake if you don’t like it, you know where the door is.” Mr Hadfield is alleged to have posted a picture of a book by Julius Evola, a keen admirer of the SS, with the caption: “Got me some good new summer reading.”

Posts within the group are alleged to have included Holocaust jokes, antisemitic conspiracy theories and open admiration for the late British fascist leader Oswald Mosley, alongside other offensive material, including sickening references to the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox.

Some members are even alleged to have written in support of the extremist far right group Scottish Dawn, a faction of the proscribed neo-Nazi terrorist organisation, National Action, with one member said to have shared an article from a National Action-linked website.

Meanwhile, Cian Jones, who provides security for the Holocaust denying, far right London Forum, allegedly posted the prison letter of Lawrence Burns, a National Action member currently behind bars for inciting racial hatred, which was described by Mr Jones as “inspiring.”

Other alleged members of YRS included Tom Cormack, leader of the hardline racist group, British Imperative (BI).

These views were not limited to a fringe collection of users within YRS. For example, polls within YRS revealed the widespread support of racist views with 72% of respondents agreed that the “disparity between the average IQs of different races” was caused primarily by genetic factors. An additional poll showed 72% agreeing that a “racially diverse society is undesirable”. Over half (53%) of YRS poll respondents claimed that giving women the right to vote was “a mistake” and 78% voted positively when Mr Brooks posed the question: “would you unironically support the immediate liquidation of all communists, communists organisations and enablers of communist subversives”.

The group has organised several meetings in London, Manchester and Belfast. Meetings have been attended by Mr Brooks, Chris Ram and Paul Griffin, a Canadian-born far-right activist instrumental in the organisation of Legion MAC, a far-right “survival camp” which taught street-fighting training. Sorcha Ní Bhuaigh, who has attended meetings of the London Forum with Mr Griffin, also attended the YRS social events.

Campaign Against Antisemitism expects that the Conservative Party, UKIP and Facebook will all now take urgent action.

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In sudden policy reversal, Twitter says it will ban users who affiliate with neo-Nazis, Islamists and other violent extremists

In a sharp policy reversal, Twitter is set to begin doing something that it told Campaign Against Antisemitism it would never do: proactively removing extremists from the platform.

In December 2014, Sinéad McSweeney, Twitter’s Director of Public Policy for Europe told us in an e-mail: “Your emphasis on proactive monitoring and reporting is not compatible with our basic structure and policies as a platform. I therefore think it is not possible to take this any further.” We had been in discussions with senior personnel at Twitter, involving the then CEO, proposing that Twitter use algorithms to seek out and remove antisemitic users and content on their platform in the same way that they already remove child pornography and material that violates copyright. However, Ms McSweeney strongly resisted our request that Twitter begin proactively removing online hatred.

However, Twitter is now set to introduce changes to its rules that will permit it to trawl content, both on Twitter and on other websites, so that members of extremist organisations can be stopped from using Twitter. The new rule states: “You also may not affiliate with organizations [sic] that — whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform — use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.” Another new rule bans “hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header” or using a “username, display name, or profile bio to engage in abusive behavior, such as targeted harassment or expressing hate towards a person, group, or protected category.” The rules will take effect from 18th December, reportedly due to EU laws affecting changes to companies’ terms and conditions.

Whereas Twitter has previously required users to post something that breaks the rules, which other users then have to report to Twitter, under the new rules, Twitter may ban users simply for having an affiliation to extremist groups.

Twitter has an extremely poor record on removing antisemitism, and in the past has made new announcements on the fight against online hatred only to fail to deliver any meaningful change, but we do consider Twitter’s rule change to be significant. Twitter has finally acknowledged that it is time for them to proactively remove users who are inciting violence, such as terrorism. How effectively they do so remains to be seen, but we are pleased that Ms McSweeney finally appears to have lost the argument against proactive monitoring.

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Facebook, Twitter and Google must use their antisemite profiling technology to expel bigots instead of selling ads

Following the discovery that Facebook’s advertising algorithm offered advertisers the opportunity to target categories of users whose views were summarised as “Jew hater”, “How to burn Jews”, or “History of ‘why Jews ruin the world’”, it has now emerged that Twitter and Google also provide an means of targeting antisemites on their platforms.

Twitter has now been found offering a means of targeting almost 19 million users who might be particularly interested in hearing about a “Nazi” offering, and Google has been exposed for suggesting “good quality” keywords to antisemitic advertisers such as “the evil Jew”, “Jewish parasite”, “Jews control the media” and “Jewish control of banks”.

It comes as no surprise whatsoever that these titans of social networking and search can identify antisemites easily: their businesses are driven by their ability to reach huge numbers of people, and profile those people precisely enough to allow advertisers to target specific groups according to their interests.

Now we know Facebook, Twitter, Google and no doubt many others, have developed algorithms so advanced that they even manage to identify antisemites by accident. This shows how easy it is to find Facebook, Twitter and YouTube users who hate Jews. Many antisemites on these platforms make no effort at all to conceal or disguise their hatred, brazenly sharing neo-Nazi, far-left or Islamist antisemitic material. What is so shameful is not that these antisemites exist, but that Facebook, Twitter and Google evidently can identify them and chooses not to expel them from their social networking platform.

Perhaps even more outrageous is that these companies will have been collecting money from advertisers seeking to target antisemites, perhaps to invite them to Jew-hatred rallies or to share antisemitic conspiracy myths with them. Despite apologising when caught out, none of these companies have revealed how much money they made, or what will be done with the proceeds.

The reasons that these companies are so tolerant of antisemites might be related. These online titans are funded by the advertising they sell, which depends on continued growth in the number of their users, and the ability to reliably target all of those users according to their interests. Using their advanced antisemite-targeting algorithms to excise antisemites, extremists and other undesirable people from their social networking platforms could start to slightly dent the growth in the number of their users, which is a key metric of the companies’ success and their attractiveness as advertising platforms.

Now we have confirmation that internet giants are sitting on technology for targeting antisemitic users, but they are using it to sell ads instead of expelling the bigots. That is the real scandal here.

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Facebook apologises for allowing advertisers to target antisemites, but will it now target them, and what will it do with the profits?

Facebook has been forced to apologise after its advertising algorithm was found to be allowing advertisers to target antisemites whose interests were summarised by the algorithm as: “Jew hater”, “How to burn Jews”, or “History of ‘why Jews ruin the world’”. That this quirk of Facebook’s advertising algorithm had gone unnoticed is somewhat scandalous, but the real scandal is what it reveals about Facebook.

The fact that Facebook’s algorithm has managed to accidentally identify antisemites on the platform shows how easy it is to find Facebook users who hate Jews. Many antisemites on Facebook make no effort at all to conceal or disguise their hatred, brazenly sharing neo-Nazi, far-left or Islamist antisemitic material. What is so shameful is not that these antisemites exist, but that Facebook evidently can identify them and chooses not to expel them from its social networking platform.

Perhaps even more outrageous is that Facebook will have been collecting money from advertisers seeking to target antisemites, perhaps to invite them to rallies or to share antisemitic conspiracy myths with them, and Facebook has not only made that possible, it has charged a fee for the service. Despite apologising when caught out, Facebook has not revealed how much money it made, or what will be done with the proceeds.

The reasons that Facebook appears not to be putting much effort into expelling antisemites, or donating its profits from the adverts, may be related. Facebook is funded by the advertising it sells, which depends on continued growth in the number of its users, and the ability to reliably target all of those users according to their interests. Facebook has necessarily developed advanced algorithms for profiling its users, but using them to excise antisemites, extremists and other undesirable people from its social networking platform could start to slightly dent the growth in the number of its users, which is a key metric of the company’s success and its attractiveness as an advertising platform.

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Facebook’s representative in Israel confirms that it has no intention of removing Holocaust denial unless compelled to do so by law

According to Israeli news website NRG, Facebook’s representative in Israel has confirmed in a letter to an Israeli parliamentarian that the company has no intention of removing Holocaust denial content from Facebook unless compelled to do so by law.

Jordana Cutler, Facebook’s public policy representative in Israel wrote in a letter to Israeli MK Uri Maklev that Holocaust denial content will be removed in Israel and other countries where it is illegal, but not in countries like Britain which do not have specific legislation outlawing Holocaust denial.

According to NRG, Facebook considers Holocaust denial to be the expression of an opinion which should be challenged. She wrote: “In some cases, instead of the removing and censoring of content, exposure and the condemnation of the lies and the narrow-mindedness are more significant to promoting the truth.”

She claimed however that Facebook will remove hate speech and Nazi symbols, which exposes Facebook’s view that denying the Holocaust is not hate speech and is less offensive than the sight of a swastika.

Facebook’s policy of permitting Holocaust denial is repulsive and irresponsible. This latest announcement is merely the latest in a litany of attempts to dodge the expensive and difficult task of policing incitement on Facebook.

The company appears to be pressing ahead with attempts to remove “fake news”, but apparently it is not bothered by fake history and incitement.

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Home Affairs Committee proposes new hate crime laws to regulate “completely irresponsible” social media giants

The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has published the report of its inquiry into online hate crime. The Committee has severely criticised social media companies Google, Facebook and Twitter, recommending that following the general election, laws should be passed which would make it a criminal offence for social media companies to fail to remove criminal hate speech and incitement within a strict timeframe, citing a German proposal to fine companies up to £44 million. The mooted law would include significant escalating fines for the companies.

Google (which owns YouTube), Facebook and Twitter had all been hauled before the Committee where they were on the defensive from the outset.

The Committee was particularly shocked by a phenomenon that most social media users are now all too familiar with: social media companies outsource reporting hate speech to social media users. Campaign Against Antisemitism and many others have long demanded that social networks proactively search for and remove hate speech from their platforms, and the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has now joined the call. Indeed the Committee went as far as proposing that social media companies pay towards the cost of police units specialising in online hate crime if they fail to adequately keep illegal material off their networks.

In response to Google, Facebook and Twitter’s “unacceptable” attempts to avoid questions about what they actually do to clean up their platforms, the Committee proposed that the companies should be required by law to publish quarterly reports on their safeguarding activity including the number of staff, complaints and action taken.

Calling the social media companies “completely irresponsible”, the Committee attacked their failure to implement even their own community standards, and noted the contrast between their lax approach to hate crime and their tough and speedy response to copyright infringement. The Committee found numerous examples of hate speech not being removed by social media companies, for example Google communications chief Peter Barron brazenly told the Committee that Google’s lawyers did not consider a video by a renowned American racist, David Duke, to be antisemitic, despite Duke using the video to claim that “the Jews” were conspiring to subvert Western society to bring about a “white genocide”.

As the report was published, Yvette Cooper MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Social media companies’ failure to deal with illegal and dangerous material online is a disgrace…This isn’t beyond them to solve, yet they are failing to do so. They continue to operate as platforms for hatred and extremism without even taking basic steps to make sure they can quickly stop illegal material, properly enforce their own community standards, or keep people safe…They have been far too slow in dealing with complaints from their users, and it is blindingly obvious that they have a responsibility to proactively search their platforms for illegal content, particularly when it comes to terrorist organisations. Given their continued failure to sort this, we need a new system including fines and penalties if they don’t swiftly remove illegal content.”

We welcome the findings of the Committee, which has robustly held the social media giants to account. Campaign Against Antisemitism believes that internet giants must do much more to tackle hate crime on their platforms, particularly by developing proactive algorithms to take down antisemitic material in the same way that they already remove copyright material, or child abuse. We also believe that it is important for the social networks to verify the true identities of their users, and to provide evidence to police when British laws are broken, not only American laws.

Campaign Against Antisemitism recognises the improvements made by social media companies, but ultimately we agree with the Committee that their approach to date has been abjectly irresponsible and slow. We therefore applaud the Committee’s recommendation that the law should be changed to compel companies to adopt effective strategies against hate crime or face criminal charges and extremely heavy fines.

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Facebook, Google and Twitter hauled before MPs for grilling on hate crime

Yesterday Facebook, Google and Twitter appeared before the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, as part of the Committee’s inquiry into the violent consequences of hate crime.

The Committee’s Chair, the Rt Hon. Yvette Cooper MP set the tone of the discussion by noting: “We’ve seen too many cases of vile online hate crimes, harassment or threats where social media companies have failed to act. It cannot be beyond the wit and means of multi-billion dollar social media companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Google to develop ways to better protect users from hatred and abuse.”

The social networks were quickly put on the defensive, and the hearing had hugely embarrassing moments, for example when Google’s Peter Barron insisted that a YouTube video entitled “Jews admit organising White Genocide” would not be removed from the platform because it did not breach YouTube’s rules against hate speech. The companies remained on the defensive throughout the hearing, even towards the end when they each repeatedly refused to disclose how many staff they employ to review user reports.

There were also more positive moments, including when Twitter’s Nick Pickles revealed that the social network is now finally experimenting with technology to proactively seek out hateful content, something which Campaign Against Antisemitism has long urged, including in our meetings with Mr Pickles.

The Committee also probed why the social networks do not verify the identities of their users, making it easy to create fake accounts which can be used to direct abuse at other users, but the reasons given were unconvincing. Whereas there might be legitimate reasons to allow anonymity within war zones such as Syria, where verification is impossible in any case, there is no equivalent reason for failing to verify British users.

The companies were also quizzed on whether they will ever become effective at removing hateful content unless the UK legislates to force them to, like the legislatures of Germany and Israel. It sounded very much like the answer was ‘no’.

Campaign Against Antisemitism believes that internet giants must do much more to tackle hate crime on their platforms, particularly by developing proactive algorithms to take down antisemitic material in the same way that they already remove copyright material, or child abuse. We also believe that it is important for the social networks to verify the true identities of their users, and to provide evidence to police when British laws are broken, not only American laws.

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First four arrests as CAA announces new unit to track and punish antisemites on Twitter

Campaign Against Antisemitism has established a new specialist team which monitors antisemitism on Twitter, builds up evidence and works with police forces across the UK to bring those responsible to justice. Today, we announce the first arrests as a result of these investigations.

Jew-hatred on Twitter made headlines in 2014 when the “#HitlerWasRight” hashtag trended worldwide, but since then the issue has dropped from the public eye despite the problem continuing to worsen.

Campaign Against Antisemitism made efforts to work with Twitter to proactively remove antisemitic accounts from the platform, but those efforts ended when Twitter told us that “proactive monitoring and reporting is not compatible with our basic structure and policies as a platform.” We also worked with victims of antisemitic incitement on Twitter, helping them to report their cases to the police, but found that police forces threw up obstacles which victims did not know how to overcome.

With Twitter and police forces leaving the problem unsolved, we created a social media investigations team, specialising in monitoring social media, gathering evidence, and ensuring that the police take action, with the help of our existing legal team comprising some of the UK’s top criminal lawyers.

These efforts have borne fruit; despite difficulties with police forces, four arrests have now been made. In all cases, those arrested disguised their Jew-hatred as criticism of “Zionists”, but through extensive monitoring, we were able to gather evidence showing that their incitement was in fact targeting Jews.

Freedom of speech comes with obligations, not just rights. When people choose to incite hatred or intimidate others in public, they must face the consequences of their choices under the law of the land.

It is sad that the job of tackling antisemitism on Twitter is being left to our volunteers, but we refuse to allow the daily barrage of online intimidation of Jews to continue unabated. The message to UK-based antisemites on Twitter is clear: continue to publish anti-Jewish racism and you will be brought to justice.

We would like to thank and pay tribute to the extremely dedicated team of volunteers which has secured these arrests, with more to follow.

  • A man has been arrested by South Wales police and released on bail over allegations that he tweeted messages such as: “We need to root out the fifth column American/British Jews who’s loyalty is to Netanyahu and racist Israel.”, “Massacre, slaughter and revenge are deeply ingrained in the collective Jewish psyche from the moment of birth onwards.” and “Very rich powerful Jews can get away with being paedophiles, while Jewish journalists/bloggers can get away by simply not writing about it.”
  • A man has been arrested by Sussex Police and released on bail over allegations that he tweeted messages such as: “Jews are nasty murdering bastards”, “We don’t want a Jew [Ed Miliband] to lead our country”, and “Let me be clear. If all Jews died today I’d be happy. Would I do it? No. Would I applaud? Yes”
  • A man has been arrested by Thames Valley Police and released on bail over allegations that he tweeted messages such as: “We evicted the Jews in the past and we took their property because of their thievery. So not a problem. Excise the cancer.” and “When we chucked the Jews out we prospered hugely, they weedled their way back and it turned to s***.”
  • A woman has been arrested by Police Scotland over allegations that she tweeted messages such as: “Pedophilia is all about having power to humiliate someone smaller… The Jewish Talmud positively endorses it” and “I want the Jews in exile as they have been thrown out of every country so far for their bulls***”

  • South Wales

    A man has been arrested by South Wales Police and released on bail

  • Sussex

    A man has been arrested by Sussex Police and released on bail

  • Thames Valley

    A man has been arrested by Thames Valley Police and released on bail

  • Scotland

    A woman has been arrested by Police Scotland

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Facebook COO shirks fight against online hate

Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos yesterday and delivered an astonishing message: fight hate on Facebook by ‘liking’ hate pages and posting positive messages on them.

For a company with an extremely poor track record in fighting online hatred, we expected that the company’s next announcement might be for technology that detects and removes common content that incites and intimidates, such as Islamist or neo-Nazi links, memes and hashtags.

Instead, Sandberg’s ridiculous suggestion places the burden once again on Facebook’s users.

Already the company requires users to report “hate speech” such as antisemitic content, but then Facebook invariably tells users that the content they reported did not breach “community standards”. We continue to see everything from modern day antisemitic conspiracy myths that Jews are funding ISIS, to mediaeval blood libels, spread like wildfire on the social network, with Facebook’s reporting system failing abysmally to have any effect.

Sandberg’s new idea that users should spend their time ‘liking’ pages that incite hatred and trying to post positive content on them is the most ludicrous non-solution imaginable. ‘Liking’ and commenting on pages increases their visibility on users’ news feeds, and thereby exposes more people to the page’s message. The idea that positive comments would have any effect is also nonsensical as comments can be deleted faster than they can be written, which is why antisemitic comments posted on our own Facebook page rarely stay there longer than a few minutes.

The sole evidence Sandberg offered in support of her idea was a story about the ‘successful’ targeting of the German National Democratic Party’s page on Facebook. Extolling the benefits of what she called a “like attack”, Sandberg took Facebook users for fools, patronisingly saying: “Rather than scream and protest, they got 100,000 people to like the page, who did not like the page and put messages of tolerance on the page, so when you got to the page, it changed the content and what was a page filled with hatred and intolerance was then tolerance and messages of hope. The best antidote to bad speech is good speech and the best antidote to hate is tolerance.” Except that what really happened is 100,000 people wasted their time because not long after the “like attack”, NPD’s Facebook page was back to normal, except that now it had a lot more ‘likes’ and appeared more often on Facebook users’ news feeds and higher in search results.

Instead of coming up with increasingly pointless ways of distracting users from Facebook’s failure to robustly tackle incitement and intimidation on its platform, it is time for Facebook to innovate. Facebook must develop means of detecting and removing hatred in exactly the same way that it proactively removes child pornography and copyright music and video from the platform.

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Twitter toughens its rules against hatred and incitement, but will it make a difference?

Twitter has announced tougher rules against hatred and incitement on the platform. In a statement, the company wrote: “We believe that protection from abuse and harassment is a vital part of empowering people to freely express themselves on Twitter.”

Whereas the old rules would often require that a user threaten or promote violence before Twitter took action, the new rules state that users “may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability or disease”. The rules also prohibit the promotion of terrorism, targeted abuse of harassment, posting another user’s private information or creating multiple accounts with which to abuse others.

We welcome these changes, as well as the investment in enforcement that the company says it has made. In particular, we hope to see much firmer action against users who promote antisemitic conspiracy myths using the word “Zionists” instead of “Jews”, and the removal of terrorist sympathisers from the platform.

Much more importantly though, we hope that Twitter will become more proactively helpful in removing antisemitism from its platform. Removing antisemitic content should not fall to the victims of antisemitic Twitter trolls; there is no reason why Twitter cannot proactively seek out antisemitic content and remove it, as we have called for repeatedly.

Twitter should also be working more proactively with British police forces. Police forces often require data from social networks for use in evidence, but obtaining it can dramatically slow down or even thwart police investigations. In the worst cases, Twitter should be proactively reporting users to the police for investigation.

Ultimately, removing Twitter accounts only hampers antisemites as they can create a new account moments after having their account removed, even though they must rebuild their Twitter following. That is why, when we find that an antisemitic Twitter user is based in the UK, we will always seek prosecution, as criminal sanctions are harder to ignore than sanctions Twitter can enforce, and arrest sends a stronger message to other antisemites on Twitter than the disappearance of an account.

Though we encourage Twitter users to report to Twitter antisemitic accounts which appear to be based overseas, we believe that UK-based accounts should be reported to the police, and our volunteer team will continue to work with our supporters and the police to ensure that British antisemites on Twitter are brought to justice.

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Antisemitic outpouring online after Jewish terrorist burns down house, killing Arab infant

We join the many voices in the Jewish community, including the Israeli Prime Minister, which have denounced in unison the terrorist arson attack that took the life of an Arab infant in Duma.

We also condemn the vile outpouring of Jew hatred on social media. One good example was the Facebook page of Al Jazeera presenter Mehdi Hasan. When Hasan posted a Ha’aretz article about the attack, his followers piled in with racist abuse.

One Facebook follower of Hasan, Ruksana Arik, wrote: “Why will Cameron stop when he gets funded by the Jews. He has Jewish blood in him.” Mohammed Yusuf Khatri posted: “Americans and Zionist Jews are loving it.” Mudassir Dar’s contribution read: “Jews are devil deserve hell only.” Tan Moh implored: “Oh Allah please send the worse curse ever for the Jews who are killing innocent people!” Shafiq Abbasi wrote: “Showing their true colours the terrorist Jews.” Someone going by the name of ‘Moxemedqadar Blue Moon’ commented: “I think what these settlers did was to justify why Hitler burnt them to fumes.”

In the first six months of this year, 20% of the antisemitic incidents reported in the UK were online. It is time for the social networks to proactively seek out Jew hatred on their platforms.

We are seeking to recruit a General Counsel a Video and Content Creator to join our London office

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Campaign Against Antisemitism is a volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law. Everything that we do is done by people who volunteer their time, using donations contributed by members of the public. Join the fight against antisemitism by subscribing to our updates, volunteering, or donating.

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