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.