Jewish groups welcome FB, Twitter pledge to crack down on hate speech
\nYouTube, Microsoft also sign code of conduct with European Commission, requiring removal of reported content within 24 hours<\/p>\n
Jewish groups welcomed a pledge by four internet giants to crack down on online hate speech, though some questioned the firms\u2019 commitment to act.<\/p>\n
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft on Tuesday signed a code of conduct with the European Commission that requires them to delete the majority of reported illegal hate speech within 24 hours, The Telegraph reported.<\/p>\n
The European Jewish Congress offered an \u201centhusiastic welcome\u201d to the code of conduct in a statement Tuesday, but the World Jewish Congress reacted more coolly in a statement the same day, voicing \u201cskepticism about the commitment of these firms to effectively police their respective platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and others \u201calready have clear guidelines in place aimed at preventing the spread of offensive content, yet they have so far utterly failed to properly implement their own rules,\u201d the CEO of the World Jewish Congress, Robert Singer, said in the statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cTens of thousands of despicable video clips continue to be made available although their existence has been reported to YouTube and despite the fact that they are in clear violation of the platform\u2019s own guidelines prohibiting racist hate speech. \u2026 Nonetheless, YouTube gives the impression that it has been cracking down on such content. Alas, the reality is that so far it hasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, France\u2019s Union of Jewish Students, or UEJF, and the anti-racist organization SOS Racisme sued Twitter, YouTube and Facebook for failing to remove anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic content, Le Parisien reported.<\/p>\n
The two groups, together with SOS Homophobie, said that on March 31 and May 10, they found 586 examples of such content. Only 4 percent of the content was deleted by Twitter, 7 percent by YouTube and 34 percent by Facebook, the groups said.<\/p>\n
In 2013, the Paris Court of Appeals issued a landmark ruling forcing Twitter to block the hashtag #UnBonJuif \u2014 French for \u201ca good Jew\u201d \u2014 and to remove the thousands of associated anti-Semitic tweets that violated France\u2019s law against hate speech.<\/p>\n
The ruling was a turning point in the fight against online hate speech in France and beyond because it caused Twitter to abandon its policy of applying as little censorship as is permissible in the United States, where Twitter\u2019s head office is based and where there are fewer limitations on free speech than in many countries in Europe.<\/p>\n
YouTube has since permanently banned videos posted by Dieudonne, a French comedian with 10 convictions for inciting racial hatred against Jews.<\/p>\n
In 2014, Facebook removed the page of the Holocaust denier Soral for \u201crepeatedly posting things that don\u2019t comply with the Facebook terms,\u201d according to the company. Soral\u2019s page had drawn many complaints in previous years.<\/p>\n
Despite complaints of partial compliance on hate speech removal by the internet giants, European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor celebrated the accord Tuesday as \u201ca historic agreement that could not arrive at a better time.\u201d It is \u201cvery important\u201d that governments and online companies \u201cwork in tandem to make the internet a safer space for all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The president of the Conference of European Rabbis, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, was also optimistic, saying in a statement that \u201cinternet hate leads to a culture of fear. We hope that today\u2019s announcement will be the first step in combating that culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
REPORT<\/a>: “The recent terror attacks have reminded us of the urgent need to address illegal online hate speech. Social media is unfortunately one of the tools that terrorist groups use to radicalize young people,” said Vera Jourova, European Commissioner in charge of Justice,Consumers and Gender Equality, at a daily press briefing of the Commission.”The Internet is a place for free speech, not hate speech. The Code of Conduct against illegal online hate speech, agreed with IT companies today, will ensure that public incitement to violence to hatred has no place online,\u2019\u2019 she added.<\/p>\n The definition of illegal online content is based on the Framework Decision on Combatting Racism and Xenophobia which criminalises the public incitement to violence or hatred directed against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin.<\/p>\n Jewish groups welcome the agreement. Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute, declared : \u201cFor too long, social media companies claimed their \u2018community standards\u2019 are sufficient to deal with the haters on their platforms. For too long, users flagging posts such as \u2018Kill all Jews\u2019 were frequently told though such calls to murder didn\u2019t violate these same \u2018community standards.\u2019 We hope this agreement will help ensure social media platforms are no longer abused by those who threaten people’s lives and the very values our free societies are built on.\u2019\u2019\u201cWe trust the European Commission and EU Member States will monitor closely whether this agreement is properly implemented and take the appropriate measures should the code of conduct prove to be ineffective,\u201d he added.\u201cThis is a historic agreement that could not arrive at a better time,\u201d said European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor. \u201cWe have seen a massive growth of online hate speech and incitement in recent years and it is very important that governments, law enforcement agencies and online companies work in tandem to make the internet a safer space for all.\u201d\u201cIt has been demonstrated that many of those who have shed blood on the streets of Europe in recent years have been indoctrinated online, so hopefully this agreement can cut off a means of recruitment into extremist organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They don’t speak for me. Know any white guys who want to restrict freedom of speech? I don’t. The Torah has no such category as hate speech or racism or bigotry or anti-Semitism. These are all gentile terms contrary to … Continue reading ![\"CjxkhCpVAAEWIRn\"](\"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/CjxkhCpVAAEWIRn-300x174.jpg\")
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