Meta has said it will expand its hate speech policy to cover more uses of the word “Zionist” when applied to Jews or Israelis on its platform.
We will now remove messages targeting ‘Zionists’ in several areas where our investigation has shown that the term tends to be used to refer to Jews and Israelis, with dehumanising comparisons, calls to harm, or denials of existence," the company said in a press release on Tuesday.
In December, Human Rights Watch said that Meta was guilty of “systemic censorship of Palestine content” during Israel’s war on Gaza.
Zionists: It’s anti Semitic to say Zionists control social media.
Also Zionists: from now on you’re not allowed to criticize us on social media.
most Zionists i’ve met are white Protestants, and most Jews i’ve met aren’t Zionists…
Headline next week: Meta has said it will expand its hate speech policy to cover more uses of the word “Nazi” when applied to white males on its platform.
Conflating Jews and Zionists is obligatory for Mark “Donated $125.000 to Zaka” Zuckerberg.
Also denial of the existence of israel is now forbidden in Germany and on Meta platforms. Free speech btw.
Also denial of the existence of israel is now forbidden in Germany and on Meta platforms. Free speech btw.
Maybe it’s just me, but calling for the eradication of a country is bad (controversial take, I know)
Yes everyone should recognize Palestine.
I agree, but not a Palestine that occupies 100% of Israel.
Israel is not a country.
If israel wants to exist it can accept a two state solution with Palestine right now.
You do not get to decide whether a colony is a country. The natives do.
Saying israel is a country is similar to saying Crimea is actually Russian.
Israel is not a country.
OK I’m done with this conversation, lmao. Didn’t have to scratch your surface very much for the full-on hate to come out. Interesting how that happens so often with people who profess to simply be anti-zionist.
Recognition of israel comes from Palestinians not from posturing hypocrites.
Thanks for the explanation, person who believes Jews are not native to Israel:
You do not get to decide whether a colony is a country. The natives do.
Definitely not a ragingly anti-Semitic opinion there, nope! Edit: same for the downvoters too. You all need to take a step back and re-examine your views. Jews have lived there for 3000 years.
Denial of Israel as in saying it doesn’t exist, or that it shouldn’t?
Pretending the state of Israel isn’t a form of regional power doesn’t make it go away.
Don’t get me wrong, Israel has shown time and again that it does not deserve that power and must be dismantled. But that doesn’t sound like what the law is talking about.
Maybe I’m being overly pedantic about the language in use
To be clear I’m talking about the government form of one single state and calling it Palestine, Not booting out everyone living there.
Israel could be recognized as a country. In fact Palestinians have presented a two state solution for mutual recognition. If israel accepts it, it will become a country. Even Hamas has said to be open to this
Palestinians have the right to recognize israel as a country as they have stolen their land. We do not have that right. Lucky for israel if they aren’t super Nazis looking to expand their Lebensraum, they can agree to that two state solution right now.
shown that the term tends to be used to refer to Jews and Israelis, with dehumanising comparisons, calls to harm, or denials of existence,"
This is not confusing the two - this is specifically targeting anti-semitism
No this is banning criticism of israel along with it. Using Judaism as a shield for Zionists.
If they wanted to ban antisemitism they would not have included non-antisemitism in there.
You think that dehumanising, calling for harm or denials of Jewish existence aren’t anti-semitism?
Why are you bringing up Judaism?
The article separately mentions Zionism. This has nothing to do with Judaism.
You mentioned Judaism. You think Zionism had nothing to do with Judaism? You think dehumanising anyone - including Zionists is ok?
That is exactly it. Antisemites figured out a while back that they could say whatever they want about Jews as long as they swap out the word Zionist. This has been a feature of white supremacy for ages. It used to be “people with big noses” or “people who wear hats” or even “bankers,” or “globalists.” The latter two are more similar to the use of “Zionist” because they represent actual groups that people criticize. That gives more cover to the actual antisemites.
This is actually a good thing, because it removes that cover from bigots who want to hijack the movement and hide behind it.
Isn’t it incredibly dangerous to ban “Zionist” only because it’s misused? It can be used to legitimately describe people who have a vested interest in Isreal occupying Palestine. I understand it’s used as a slur, but banning otherwise normal words will make the discourse much more difficult.
Who said anything about banning it? You can read the full statement here. As I said, this is about bigots co-opting the word to say bigoted shit, taking into account the nuance of how a word can be used or misused. Literally no one other than propagandists are talking about Meta “banning” the word.
We do not allow content that attacks people on the basis of protected characteristics such as nationality, race, or religion, among others. We do allow people to criticize adherents of political affiliations and ideologies.
My apologies, I did not read the article on the assumption Meta would choose the irresponsible option. The article was surprisingly nuanced, and I hope the enforcement of Meta’s policies are equally nuanced.
Yes, let’s hope so!
Lol have you ever tried to report abuse on Facebook or Instagram?
They won’t do shit about obvious racist abuse or hate speech. Let them define what they want, they will do what they always do - nothing.
Their algorithm appears to work on bots only which auto crawl content for words.
When it comes to media they do remove some material there are a few articles of people working in a meta moderation centers with traumas from what they have seen posted.
Meanwhile, scamming on instagram is totally OK, because they pay for ad space!
So… hate speech toward a political ideology? Are they going to do the same for the other political ideologies?
It is specifically not that. It’s about people misusing the term “Zionists” to refer to Jews, which is also a thing that happens.
The complete statement is here if you want to see it. The posted article does a pretty poor job explaining it.
Okay… so people call white cis males, “fascists”
So we need to make it fair then and make all speech against political ideologies as, “hate speech”.
Any one person supporting the elimination of our right to free speech should be turned into its basic form of carbon without hesitation.
Sorry, but I believe that terror groups (such as the KKK, Proud Boys, GDL, ISIS/Daesh, NJP, Patriot Front) should not be allowed unlimited free reign to spread their message and recruit followers but that’s just me. I understand the argument for unlimited free speech on every platform, but I happen to disagree.
That’s a slippery slope. That would then include political ideologies like Marxism, Zionism, Communism, Socialism, and other social-political groups you forgot to include like BLM and Anti-Fa.
As a person who doesn’t know and has to Google what a Zioni…
