Antisemitism is constantly evolving — social media companies need to as well
Meta, who owns Facebook and Instagram, is the only social media company that is preventing ‘Zionist’ from being used as hate speech
Meta’s apps and logo; private WhatsApp messages are not subject to the new hate speech policy. Photo by iStock
Ted Deutch July 18, 2024
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and the world’s largest social media company, took an unprecedented and much-needed step to protect Jews and Israelis from antisemitic harassment last week. It instituted new protocols to prevent users from skirting their rules against hate speech by substituting the word “Zionist” for “Jew” or “Israeli.”
Fighting antisemitism is a bit like playing whack-a-mole. Antisemitism is an ever-evolving hatred, and conspiracy theories and tropes continue to present in different ways. For millennia, Jews have been scapegoats and cast as a source of evil. In medieval times, they were blamed for spreading disease and kidnapping and murdering Christian children; in post-WWI Europe, they were race polluters, and today, we — or “Zionists” — are attacked over the existence of Israel, which itself has become a symbol and alleged perpetrator of these antisemitic conspiracies.
To effectively counter antisemitism — especially online — we must recognize that today’s antisemitism looks different than that of previous generations. Meta’s new policy is an important step toward that end, banning users from targeting “Zionists” with dehumanizing comparisons (e.g. “Zionists are pigs”) and calls for harm or denials of existence (e.g. “Zionists shouldn’t exist”) if used as a proxy for Jews or Israelis.
All social media companies and online platforms must follow Meta’s leadership and take similar action to keep all of their users safe.
The vast majority of the global Jewish community identifies as Zionists, believing that the Jewish people have the right to self-determination in their homeland and Israel has a right to exist. The American Jewish Committee — of which I am CEO — put out The State of Antisemitism in America report in 2023, which found that 80% of American Jews say that caring about Israel is an important part of what being Jewish means to them. Most Jews around the world are historically, culturally or religiously tied to Israel.
In 2020, I co-founded the Interparliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism, recognizing we cannot fight antisemitism if we do not fight it at the source. Today, most people encounter antisemitic conspiracies (e.g. all “Zionists” are evil and diabolical) online. In the U.S., according to our 2023 report, 68% of American adults who reported seeing or hearing antisemitism in the past 12 months say they saw it online or on social media.
Three billion people use Facebook monthly and two billion are on Instagram, compared to just 15.7 million Jews across the globe. There are users peddling antisemitism under the guise of anti-Zionism who have more followers than there are Jews in the world. Meta’s policy change will limit the spread of dangerous, antisemitic vitriol disguised in coded language and make Jewish and Israeli users safer.
This decision should have come sooner. AJC first discussed the issue with Meta and other platforms almost four years ago. If the policy had been changed then, we may have been able to avoid some of the violence and spread of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli hate we see today, especially after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack.
But this week, after an extensive listening and research process, Meta reached a conclusion we need other companies to recognize: “‘Zionist’ has layers of meaning based on its origins and usage today, and may also be highly dependent on context … in some cases [it] may be used as a proxy to refer to Jewish or Israeli people, which are protected characteristics under our Hate Speech policy.”
Critics will say that this policy is a ploy to suppress criticism of the Israeli government’s actions. That is not true. Meta’s users, including Israelis, can continue to freely criticize Israel’s government, just as they do with others. Recognizing how “Zionist” is being used in malicious ways to attack Jews and Israelis is a crucial step to safeguarding their safety and security — both online and off.
Every social media company and online platform has a corporate responsibility to respond to the ever-evolving face of antisemitism.
TikTok posts claiming that “Western media is [a] Zionist propaganda machine. DO NOT believe anything they say” are clearly peddling a longstanding conspiracy of secret Jewish power. This is rooted in the discredited publication The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was published in Russian czarist times and accused Jews of trying to control the world.
Ayatollah Ali Khameini, the antisemitic, Holocaust-denying supreme leader of Iran who has vowed to wipe Israel off the map, has already violated many platforms’ policies and continues to post vitriol targeting Jews. He has already been banned by Meta, and shouldn’t be given a platform by other social media companies. On April 10, he posted on the social platform X (formerly Twitter): “It’s regrettable some Muslim governments are helping the Zionist regime amid the conflict in Palestine. The Zionists suck the blood of a country for their own benefit when they gain a foothold in a country. Those helping the Zionist regime are helping bring their own destruction,” trafficking in the centuries-old tropes of Jewish greed and blood libel.
This type of discourse and hatred does not stay online. It follows Jews into their daily lives: written on posters at protests and encampments on college campuses, chanted outside of a memorial for those killed at the Nova music festival and shouted at families visiting synagogues and Jewish businesses.
Social media companies and online platforms need to step up as Meta has and make clear to Jewish and Israeli communities that they recognize the antisemitism we are being subjected to, and the dangers that this hate poses. Only through recognizing what antisemitism looks like today can these platforms truly keep all users safe.
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