SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook, Google and Twitter are stepping up efforts to combat online propaganda and recruiting by Islamic militants, but the Internet companies are doing it quietly to avoid the perception that they are helping the authorities police the Web.
On Friday, Facebook Inc said it took down a profile that the company believed belonged to San Bernardino shooter Tashfeen Malik, who with her husband is accused of killing 14 people in a mass shooting that the FBI is investigating as an “act of terrorism.”
Just a day earlier, the French prime minister and European Commission officials met separately with Facebook, Google, Twitter Inc and other companies to demand faster action on what the commission called “online terrorism incitement and hate speech.”
The Internet companies described their policies as straightforward: they ban certain types of content in accordance with their own terms of service, and require court orders to remove or block anything beyond that. Anyone can report, or flag, content for review and possible removal.
But the truth is far more subtle and complicated. According to former employees, Facebook, Google and Twitter all worry that if they are public about their true level of cooperation with Western law enforcement agencies, they will face endless demands for similar action from countries around the world…
Facebook said it banned this year any content praising terrorists.
Google’s YouTube has expanded a little-known “Trusted Flagger” program, allowing groups ranging from a British anti-terror police unit to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a human rights organization, to flag large numbers of videos as problematic and get immediate action.
A Google spokeswoman declined to say how many trusted flaggers there were, but said the vast majority were individuals chosen based on their past accuracy in identifying content that violated YouTube’s policies. No U.S. government agencies were part of the program, though some non-profit U.S. entities have joined in the past year, she said.
“There’s no Wizard of Oz syndrome. We send stuff in and we get an answer,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, head of the Wiesenthal Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate project.
There is no concern in Torah with stopping “hate speech” and there is no concern in the Jewish tradition with coercing gentiles in gentile countries into not saying anything bigoted or racist or homophobic or Islamophobic.
Major Jewish Group Urges Social Media Giants to Bar Palestinian Calls ‘to Terrorist Murder’ Against Israelis
Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) exhorted social media giants including YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to ban postings “celebrating and encouraging the continuing wave of stabbings by Palestinians across Israel.”
The widely available social media platforms have come under fire as reports surfaced indicating that many of the Palestinian perpetrators of this past weeks string of deadly and near-fatal terrorist attacks in Israel against Israelis have mobilized or perhaps been radicalized by videos, games, articles and posts on the Internet encouraging violence, terrorism and hate crimes against Jews.
Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, Dean and Founder and Associate Dean of the SWC, respectively, said that “social networks have been used by terrorists and their supporters to celebrate and incite deadly continuous attacks on Jewish men, women, and children across Israel.”
“We are urging Social Networking giants led by Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to take steps to stop the use of their powerful platforms to spread the terror campaign against Israelis. While Facebook and YouTube have responded to our requests and have removed some of the worst postings, Twitter continues to serve as a key weapon to launch 24/7 calls for more murder, mayhem and violence against the citizens of the Jewish state,” said Cooper, who also directs the Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate Project.
One of the biggest challenges surrounding the abundance of hate speech on social media is that until netizens find and flag content, the hateful or inciting material goes unnoticed by moderators and therefore remains circulating the web.
Israeli Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Emmanuel Nachshon recalled for The Algemeiner on Thursday that, when it comes to banning violent and inciting material from social media, these “sites cannot do anything of this sort in advance.
“They react to what is reported by other users and then flagged. So, for every film they remove, another one crops up,” he said. Such flagging policy is indeed the modus operandi for all the major social media sites — Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc. — which in many ways leaves policing in the hands of users, with the websites merely making the final decision as to whether something reported constitutes hate speech or not.
The Wiesenthal Center meanwhile placed most of the blame for the recent surge in violence nationwide across Israel on the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas.
“Mr. Abbas has validated the worst falsehoods about non-existent threats by Israel against the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount,” the Center exclaimed. “So long as there are no consequences for this Palestinian campaign of hatred and violence from the international community, led by the US and EU, Israel will be left to struggle to protect her citizens on her own against an onslaught of ancient barbarity promoted by the newest 21st Century technologies.”
Survivors of the Nazi Holocaust affiliated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center have launched a plea to FACEBOOK to deny access to their powerful social networking platform to anyone promoting denial of history’s most document crime. A recent letter from survivors of death camps and ghettos read in part;
We, the undersigned, are Holocaust Survivors who saw our parents, children and loved ones brutally murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. We are writing to you to protest Facebook’s policy that categorizes Holocaust denial as “free speech,” rather than the shameless, cynical and hateful propaganda that it is.
Listen to the voices of Holocaust Survivors. We volunteer and speak at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) and the Museum of Tolerance (MOT), where we have shared our personal testimonies with millions of visitors and youth. As individuals who are both victims of and witnesses to the truth of the horrors and hate of that time period, we are deeply hurt and offended by your policy that protects Holocaust denial as speech. Above all else, Holocaust denial, in any form, is a desecration of our suffering the suffering and martyrdom of our murdered parents, brothers and sisters.
Do not permit Holocaust denial any platform on Facebook to preach its inherentmessage of lies and hate. By allowing this hate propaganda on Facebook, you are exposing the public and, in particular, youth to the anti-Semitism which fueled the Holocaust. Please correct this terrible error in judgment before our generation passes away… (To read letter click here)
In an initial response, a Vice-President of Facebook offered to “keep the dialogue open” on the matter but re-stated his company’s position:”… we also think it’s important to maintain consistency in our policies, which don’t generally prohibit people from making statements about historical events, no matter how ignorant the statement or how awful the event.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an expert on Digital Hate and Terrorism, who often briefs online companies like Facebook, Google and Yahoo on such issues criticized Facebook’s stance, “I cannot however emphasize enough how wrong Facebook’s policy on Holocaust Denial is. A review of denial sites currently active on Facebook confirm that it is not mere speech but that it constitutes at its core a platform for bigotry and hatred of Jews, dead and alive. That is how notorious Holocaust deniers, and anti-Semites continue to Facebook’s social networking service in multiple languages.
“We will continue to urge Facebook officials to reflect on the pain and suffering their policy is causing victims of the Shoah. For these aging heroes, every posting by deniers labels them, not victims of history’s greatest crime, but liars and thieves,” Cooper said.
The Wiesenthal Center is urging Holocaust survivors and their families to join the Witness to the Truth campaign by emailing their family’s name and brief details, if possible to witnesstothetruth@wiesenthal.net – to add to the existing roster of names.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).
For more information, please contact the Center’s Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.
So according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, propaganda does not enjoy free speech protection nor does anything the SWC regards as hateful or bigoted.
Why should the historical record of WWII, including the killing of Jews, be immune from revisionist challenges? This is un-American.
“As individuals who are both victims of and witnesses to the truth of the horrors and hate of that time period, we are deeply hurt and offended by your policy that protects Holocaust denial as speech.”
Why should hurt feelings restrict free speech?
“We will continue to urge Facebook officials to reflect on the pain and suffering their policy is causing victims of the Shoah. For these aging heroes, every posting by deniers labels them, not victims of history’s greatest crime, but liars and thieves,” Cooper said.
Why is the Holocaust history’s greatest crime? What about the killing of tens of millions of non-Jews? Why is the killing of Jews worse than the killing of gentiles?
Social Media Must Do More To Thwart Subculture Of Hate Fueling Lone Wolf Terrorism – Simon Wiesenthal Center Debuts 2012 Digital Hate Report
New York, NY March 27, 2012 — Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and one of the leading experts in the analysis of cyberspace extremism released the 14th Annual Digital Terror & Hate Report and digital application (APP) Monday at the New York Tolerance Museum. Dr. William Vendley, Religions tor Peace Secretary General, and Mark Weitzman, Director of Simon Wiesenthal Center International Taskforce against Terrorism and Hate, accompanied him for the unveiling.
The release of Digital Terrorism and Hate Project’s (DTH) new Digital Terror and Hate password-sensitive APP coincides with the release of the DTH 2012 report, and is designed for law enforcement, government agencies, and policymakers. While cyber hate is on the rise, fewer than half of all law enforcement agencies (47%) have a social media policy, according to a recent police survey.
The 2012 DTH Report is based on approximately 15,000 problematic Web sites, social networking pages, forums and newer online technology games and apps. The interactive report presented the latest trends of how terrorist and hate groups manipulate and leverage internet technologies. The recent Toulouse France attack was sighted to illustrate the subculture of hate formed online. “The perpetrator in the horrific attack in Toulouse France may have learned how to create a bomb in Afghanistan, but he supercharged his hate from the internet” said Rabbi Cooper.
“Social networking companies’ commitment to deter the use of their services by terrorists and bigots is uneven. If social media outlets were to receive grades, they would receive the following: Youtube (C-), Facebook (A-), and Twitter (N/A)” stated Rabbi Cooper. “If the world is going to effectively deal with the growing threat from Lone Wolf terrorists, the social media companies lead by Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Twitter must do more.”
Major interfaith leader Dr. William Vendley, concerned about the online targeting of religious minorities said, “None of the religious communities are immune from hatred. Today every religious community needs to build solidarity across all religious borders to reject both religiously based and targeted violence. Religions for Peace (NGO at United Nations) advances that solidarity in more than 90 countries around the world. We are pleased to be in partnership with Simon Wiesenthal Center.”
Who says Abraham Cooper is a leading expert in anything? The SWC?
“Social networking companies’ commitment to deter the use of their services by terrorists and bigots is uneven. If social media outlets were to receive grades, they would receive the following: Youtube (C-), Facebook (A-), and Twitter (N/A)” stated Rabbi Cooper.
So bigots should not be allowed to use social media? Who decides what is bigotry? The SWC? Rabbi Cooper? I could read vast swathes of the Torah to any fair-minded observer and he would likely consider it bigoted. Does the SWC want to declare Torah hate speech? Of course not. The Simon Wiesenthal Center does not care about bigotry and hate speech except when it is directed against Jews (and those who are useful flunkies). The SWC sees everything through the prism of what is good for Jews. It does not stand for any universal principles except to the extent they are useful for Jews at the moment.
The SWC, along with the ADL and the SPLC, are radical organizations bent on destroying non-Jewish forms of nationalism. They’re playing a vicious game to destroy cohesion among the gentiles.
Here is an excerpt from the Talmud. Please tell me if this is hate speech.
Onkelos son of Kolonikos … went and raised Titus from the dead by magical arts, and asked him; ‘Who is most in repute in the [other] world? He replied: Israel. What then, he said, about joining them? He said: Their observances are burdensome and you will not be able to carry them out. Go and attack them in that world and you will be at the top as it is written, Her adversaries are become the head etc.; whoever harasses Israel becomes head. He asked him: What is your punishment [in the other world]? He replied: What I decreed for myself. Every day my ashes are collected and sentence is passed on me and I am burnt and my ashes are scattered over the seven seas. He then went and raised Balaam by incantations. He asked him: Who is in repute in the other world? He replied: Israel. What then, he said, about joining them? He replied: Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for ever. He then asked: What is your punishment? He replied: With boiling hot semen. He then went and raised by incantations Jesus [in Vilna edition: “the sinners of Israel”; “Jesus” appears in Munich 95 and Vatican 140 manuscripts and “he went and brought up Jesus the Nazarene” (Editions or MSs: Vatican 130)]. He asked them: Who is in repute in the other world? They replied: Israel. What about joining them? They replied: Seek their welfare, seek not their harm. Whoever touches them touches the apple of his eye. He said: What is your punishment? They replied: With boiling hot excrement, since a Master has said: Whoever mocks at the words of the Sages is punished with boiling hot excrement. Observe the difference between the sinners of Israel and the prophets of the other nations who worship idols. It has been taught: Note from this incident how serious a thing it is to put a man to shame, for God espoused the cause of Bar Kamza and destroyed His House and burnt His Temple.
— Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 56b-57a
So when the Talmud pictures Jesus — the god of the goyim — suffering for eternity in boiling hot excrement, is that hate speech? Asking for a friend.
I’m not arguing that Jews and Judaism are bad or nasty or bigoted. I’m just arguing that it is normal, natural and healthy for all strongly identifying in-groups such as Jews and Muslims to have negative feelings towards out-groups.
Rabbi Jack Abramowitz writes for the Orthodox Union:
There are six things that the Torah commands us to remember. Optimally, these verses should be recited out loud each day and their meanings should be considered…
3. Amalek’s Evil Attack Remember what Amalek did to you on the journey when you left Egypt. They met you on the way and ambushed those who were lagging behind. You were tired and exhausted, but they did not fear God. Therefore, when Hashem your God relieves you from your enemies in the land that He will give you to possess, you must erase the memory of Amalek from beneath heaven. Do not forget. (Devarim 25:17-19) Amalek is different from other nations that attacked Israel in that we are commanded to eradicate them. Why should they be punished more harshly than Egypt, which oppressed the Jews for hundreds of years? One reason is because Amalek “did not fear God.” They dared to make war not just with the Jews, but with God Himself!
Is that hate speech?
