Facebook has replied to an open letter sent to its board of directors last Friday by HonestReporting as part of a coalition of over 100 organizations.
The open letter urged Facebook’s board of executives to adopt a clear hate speech policy based on the widely accepted working definition of antisemitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
Related Reading: Open Letter: Facebook, Create a Hate Speech Policy on Antisemitism
The letter was sent after it became clear that antisemitic content on Facebook is proliferating, and that posts which have been reported to Facebook are too often allowed to stay online, or not removed swiftly enough. In its standard response, Facebook has stated that such posts do not violate its Community Standards. As a result, it became clear that Facebook needs better tools in order to identify and combat antisemitism.
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HR Demands Facebook Do Better
A total of 128 organizations joined together to sign the letter asking Facebook to implement a hate speech policy on antisemitism based on the world’s most widely accepted definition of antisemitism, the IHRA.
Fighting all forms of Jew-hatred first requires that tools be implemented that can clearly identify the sources of hate speech.
Today’s antisemitism undoubtedly includes the delegitimization of Israel’s right to exist, states the letter. This bigotry is expressed in various ways, such as the rejection of Jewish self-determination, Holocaust revisionism and denial, and the application of double standards toward the Jewish state and people.
Facebook Reacts
A few days after the open letter was sent, many of the 100+ organizations in the coalition issued tweets on the social network site Twitter, featuring the hashtags #AdoptIHRA and #DefineItToFightIt.
In response, Facebook’s Guy Rosen announced that the company is “updating our policies to more specifically account for certain kinds of implicit hate speech, such as content depicting blackface, or stereotypes about Jewish people controlling the world.”
Rosen added that Facebook will “prioritize the removal of content that violates our policy against hate groups.”
HR Responds: “Step in the Right Direction”
“This is a welcome move, but it’s only a first step,” said HonestReporting CEO Daniel Pomerantz. “As a step in the right direction, it gives us confidence that Facebook is listening and taking our concerns seriously, and now needs to back that up by fully adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
“By implementing a hate speech policy based upon IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism, Facebook and Instagram will put themselves in a position to identify modern forms of anti-Jewish hatred, thereby paving the road for their swifter removal from these platforms,” Pomerantz added.
