Since its establishment, the State of Israel has faced various boycotts, the goals of which are to lead an agenda in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or to bring about its elimination as a Jewish state.
Political boycotts such as the isolation of Israel vis-à-vis the countries of the world, economic boycotts which call for the boycott of Israeli businesses and organizations, as well as cultural and academic boycotts.
The calls to boycott Israel, along with severe manifestations of anti-Semitism, spread on the networks like wildfire and sometimes it seems that there is no cure: the networks do not act quickly and efficiently to delete, remove or enforce the manifestations of anti-Semitism, and in the past month the numbers have even increased significantly: since Elon Musk took over Twitter. He "thaw" many previously blocked accounts, including neo-Nazi profiles, and the volume of anti-Jewish tweets increased by tens of percent.
But Twitter is not alone.
Removed anti-Semitic tweet, photo: from Twitter
"The Russian platform VK leads anti-Semitism on social networks," shares Racheli Bartz-Rix, the head of the department for combating anti-Semitism from the World Zionist Organization, and the chairman of the conference to deal with the challenges of boycotts against the State of Israel, which starts tomorrow (Thursday).
According to her, "VK is apparently monitored less than English-language networks, but also on Tiktok, Facebook and YouTube there are anti-Semitic calls and calls for a boycott, and even more difficult things than that. When this type of content comes up, the general public needs to be involved in reporting such events.
Palestinian post on Twitter, photo: from Twitter
"Non-governmental organizations are working to solicit business companies, institutions and corporations to withdraw their investments from Israel. In the entertainment community they are calling to denounce Israel and boycott performances in the country. This should be of concern, because in the end it affects all of us: in the private pocket - in the increase in the cost of living, in the cultural aspect and the political aspect of Isolation of Israel".
Black November on Twitter
In November 2022, there was an extensive increase in the scope of anti-Jewish content on Twitter.
According to the research institute NCRI, phrases related to the term "Jew" were tweeted more than 5,000 times per hour.
At the beginning of that month, in the first full week under Musk's management, there was an increase in the amount of tweets that included expressions of hate.
Thus, for example, 2,598 tweets and retweets included the word kike (a derogatory term for an American Jew) - 23% more than the monthly average in 2022.
Thawed anti-Semitic accounts.
Elon Musk, photo: AP
Among the violent anti-Semitic accounts brought back to activity were those of the main organizer of the neo-Nazi "Unite the Right" rally, of the leader of the white nationalist group "Evropa Identity", and of Anglin Andrew who founded a neo-Nazi website.
Musk announced plans to unfreeze nearly all previously blocked Twitter accounts, a move celebrated on far-right forums.
"We see a constant increase in the scope of the anti-Semitic discourse and also in its dangerousness - contempt, distortion and denial of the Holocaust - and since the beginning of the war in Ukraine it has increased," explains Ruthi Cohen-Dar, director of the department for the fight against anti-Semitism at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"This is the business model of these platforms - the more extreme the content, the more traffic they attract, and the algorithm intensifies it. On the other hand, the platforms do not prevent the content because they cannot stop it. This is a sophisticated algorithm and it goes against their business model."
Harsh remarks about Jews.
Kanye West, photo: AFP
What should be done, then, to face them?
Cohen-Dar: "Governments are 17 steps behind the advancement of technology. The regulation is not only in legislation against those who cross a red light, but also in legislation or regulation in the digital space. In the European Union they have imposed a considerable measure of responsibility on digital platforms. In Germany there is comprehensive legislation against anti-Semitism , in France the legislation fell on matters of freedom of expression. But freedom of expression is not the freedom to incite, racism and violence.
"We need legislation that defines what hate crimes are, also in the digital space. It's just like terrorism, it's a violation of people's basic right to liberty and freedom. It's on the legislative side. Another thing - people don't complain and don't report enough. It's important to document hate speech, so that we can build a base Knowledge to develop a strategy and action plan to deal with the challenge.
Hatred.
Twitter offices, photo: AFP
"Another thing that needs to be done is to support the victims to encourage people to complain and help these people. Also, work is required with the platforms to remove the content and prevent the sharing of such content in advance. Employees need to be trained in them and automatic filters should also be carried out. Kanye West has more than six followers on the networks Jews all over the world! One such thing is enough to lead to an unacceptable proliferation of toxic content."
How does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs work to eradicate these phenomena?
Cohen-Dar: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs works in 108 missions around the world, and in all of them the fight against anti-Semitism and support for preserving the memory of the Holocaust are on the agenda. There are countries with which we hold an annual dialogue, where there are large Jewish communities, and we are looking for ways to face the challenge.
Another Jewish lie.
How many more lies 🤔?
https://t.co/nm6XI9Ezt1#Jews #Jewish #JewishPrivilege
— Juice (@Joon20780118) December 5, 2022
"There is also an ongoing dialogue with the technology companies about improving dealing with the phenomenon of anti-Semitism on the networks. There is responsiveness and there is attention, it is a work in progress. We need to make sure that the platforms are taken to the right place, that they enforce the rules of conduct on the users even when they are uncomfortable. They do it when it comes to In criminal content, but less so when it comes to anti-Semitic hate speech."
"remove harmful content"
"Facebook has expanded its efforts to combat Holocaust denial by directing users to Holocaust education materials in 12 languages, including Arabic, Russian and German," Bartz-Rix says.
"This is a message that appears to users as soon as Facebook's algorithm detects search terms related to the Holocaust or its denial, with the aim of directing the public to reliable information."
However, it seems that there is still a long way to go and there will be many more expressions of hatred on the networks until there is worldwide regulation on the subject.
"Contents are removed".
Meta, photo: Reuters
Meta said in response: "Billions of people use Facebook and Instagram because they have a good experience on the platforms. We invest a lot of resources in teams and technology to quickly find and remove extremist or offensive content, and work with organizations and experts to constantly improve our policies and capabilities to do so.
"We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitic hate speech on Facebook and Instagram, and we remove such content that violates our community rules when we are aware of it. In recent years, we have made important updates to our policy, including a ban on content that denies or distorts the memory of the Holocaust and content that includes anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews. We recognize In that we have more to do, and our quarterly transparency reports show that we continue to remove more and more harmful content - even before someone sees it and reports it to us." Twitter did not respond.
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