Social-Media
Facebook is getting pulled into a fight over Israel's politics.
A Facebook employee sent an unusual email to an unknown outside party on November 10th, hoping to arrange a conversation about how anti-Semitism was moderated by the platform. We are looking at the question of how we should interpret attacks on 'Zionists' to determine whether the term is a proxy for attacking Jewish or Israeli people, reads the letter, the recipient of which was written.
In certain corners of the left, that strange but seemingly innocuous email has set off a firestorm. Activists have been circulating a petition since Tuesday calling on the platform to halt any possible changes to the way in which Facebook moderates the word "Zionist."
Both sides agree that the term is often used as part of racist rhetoric that is accurately described and should be removed as hate speech. At the same time, Jewish critics of specific Israeli policies, particularly the settlement policy of the country, also use the term. Classifying the term as hate speech would, at least on Facebook, end up stifling those criticisms.
Hosted by the Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) Progressive Group, the petition eventually drew more than 20,000 signatures, including artists such as Michael Chabon, Peter Gabriel, and Wallace Shawn.
The petition reads, We are deeply concerned about the proposed revision of Facebook's hate speech policy to consider 'Zionist' as a proxy for 'Jew' or 'Jewish,' This is the wrong solution to a problem which is real and important.
Reached for comment, Facebook denied that in its hate speech policy, there are any plans to reclassify the word. But Facebook did not dispute the authenticity of the email at the same time or deny that the classification of the term "Zionist" by the platform was under review, simply saying that no decision had been made.
We allow the term 'Zionist' in political discourse under our current policies, but remove it when it is used in a dehumanizing or violent way as a proxy for Jews or Israelis, said a Facebook spokesperson. Just as we regularly engage with all of our policies, we engage with experts and stakeholders independently to ensure that this policy is in the right place, but this does not mean that we are going to change our policy.
JVP sees Facebook's email as part of a broader campaign to change how the platform addresses criticism of the Israeli government even without a concrete policy change to respond to it.
"Rabbi Alissa Wise, Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said that the proposed Facebook change would only "prevent its users from holding the Israeli government accountable for harming the Palestinian people." Restricting the word 'Zionist' as part of a hate speech policy will not actually make Jewish people safer."
Wise continued, Social media companies should enable individuals to hold our governments accountable to us, not shield governments from accountability.
Due to the rapid changes in Facebook's public policies towards anti-Semitism, many of them positive, the new changes seem plausible in part. After getting a letter from a coalition of Jewish groups, Facebook altered its hate speech policy to directly address anti-Semitism. A range of specific references to anti-Semitism were included in the revised hate speech policy, including a clause that explicitly classified generalizations about "Jewish people running the world" as anti-Semitic hate speech.
But not all the modifications requested in the August letter were made by Facebook. The signatories urged Facebook to adopt the definition developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance of anti-Semitism.
However, the IHRA standards include a number of provisions that potentially restrict criticism of Israel itself, classify as anti-Semitic the application of double standards to the actions of the country or generally denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination. These same provisions were the subject of proposals by the US Congress on anti-Semitism, which were criticized on similar grounds by the ACLU.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a letter to one of the project's architects that the IHRA definition "has been invaluable" in informing the policies of Facebook, but left the implementation details more vague. The present hate speech policy of Facebook does not mention Israel or Zionism.
Facebook has continued to engage with groups on both sides of the debate, but instead of calming them, the ongoing nature of the outreach has raised tempers. The August letter's architects have continued to pressure Facebook to "fully adopt" the definition of IHRA, and it is unclear how much influence these arguments within Facebook have.
In the wake of the August letter, activist Lara Friedman wrote, Facebook's updates to its hate speech policy have not satisfied its IHRA-focused critics, whose goal is not to get Facebook to deplatform antisemitism, but to get Facebook to deplatform criticism of Israel.
