"Violation of company policy": Meta boycotts Holocaust film Israel today

Can a film that deals with the Holocaust and punishing Nazis be racist?

In Meta's opinion - yes, absolutely.

So racist and discriminatory, that the internet giant boycotts it and prevents its creators (the Jews, no less) from marketing and publishing it on Facebook and Instagram, the social networks it owns.

The reason for the ban is not at all related to the content or quality of the film, but rather to its name in the US - Beautiful Blue Eyes - which Meta claims violates company policy, as it includes "claims or implications, direct or indirect, concerning a person's race" On the face of it, this is a proper and reasonable policy, but there is no doubt that Meta should have checked this matter on its merits.

The policeman's revenge

The name of the film actually refers to one of the most important scenes in this suspense drama, where a boy with blue eyes is murdered by the Nazis.

We will clarify again that only the name led to the confiscation, and not the plot dealing with a retired American police officer (Roy Scheider, "Jaws"), who sets out to take revenge on an elderly man, a Nazi who allegedly murdered the policeman's family during World War II.

This is actually a movie that was shot in 2007, and is also known in some countries under the names Iron Cross and Justice/Vengeance.

However, Scheider's death in 2008, before the end of filming, prevented British director Joshua Newton (son of Holocaust survivors) from completing his vision.

An unfinished version of the film was screened at festivals in 2010 and received limited distribution in 2011, but did not enjoy wide distribution.

Newton, who based the film's plot on his father's life story, recently managed to recreate and complete the unfinished scenes with Schneider through technological means.

The director's ambition is to release the "final" version of the film already this month, but Meta is not interested in cooperating with him.

"Meta is an unsupervised monster"

"This is an act of haters, and unfortunately there is no shortage of such in our society," Newton recently told the music and culture magazine "Rolling Stone". "P) didn't plan for this to happen," added the director, who actually accuses Meta herself of racism.

Although there is no evidence that Meta does not agree to publish the film on its platforms for anti-Semitic reasons, and perhaps the confiscation does indeed stem from cold considerations of a policy violation, here is another twist in the plot: after receiving the initial refusal from Meta, Newton and the film's distributors, MovieFarm, appealed the decision.

Surprisingly, Meta remained firm in its opinion, refused to lift the boycott and announced that "this is a final decision".

Newton, for his part, did not remain oblivious and continued to attack: "Mark Zuckerberg has created a monster that operates without supervision. It's one thing for an algorithm to mark your film, but it's a completely different thing when meta workers check this mark and back it up, knowing full well that it's not about racism and that the film is about the Holocaust ".

"Created a monster that operates without supervision": Mark Zuckerberg, photo: AP

On top of that, Alexander Newton, the son of the director who plays a young version of the character that Scheider plays in the film and even performs the theme song of the piece (which bears the name of the film), announced that Meta blocked his Facebook and Instagram pages.

"It's ironic and chilling, because both the film and the song deal with Holocaust survivors."

And what's next?

The Newtons are currently exploring their legal options and are considering suing Meta.

"There is no doubt that Mark Zuckerberg is too busy promoting his company's presence in the metaverse. Instead of dealing with virtual reality, maybe it's better for him to check what's happening in the real world."

To be continued.

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