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

—

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