The following report from Israel discusses the strange way that Facebook handles anti-Semitic content. If you are accessing the social media site from an Israeli profile, the Jew-hating material will not be visible. However, outside Israel, such pages are clearly accessible.
Facebook denies taking any specific selective action to block such content in Israel. Is it simply a default setting when an Israeli profile is set up? The answer is not clear.
Many thanks to D@rLin|{ for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Transcript:
| 00:00 | And now about the test, which may indicate | |
| 00:03 | that Facebook is much more ingenious than we thought. | |
| 00:06 | Even if you are sure that content was removed, | |
| 00:09 | even when you can clearly see the message that it was removed, it is not necessarily the case. | |
| 00:14 | That’s right. A Jewish American blogger, Brian John Tomas, | |
| 00:17 | uploaded a video to YouTube, which allegedly proves that Facebook | |
| 00:20 | tries to hide evidence of the anti-Semitism on its platform, | |
| 00:24 | at least from the Jews and Israelis. | |
| 01:09 | According to Brian’s test, if you set your Facebook’s profile to Israel, | |
| 01:12 | you will not see anti-Semitic content at all. | |
| 01:15 | Surprisingly, YouTube decided to remove the video. | |
| 01:18 | His video? Yes, the video he prepared | |
| 01:22 | He received a letter from YouTube, stating that this video was inappropriate and will be removed. | |
| 01:28 | We talked with Brian and this is his response | |
| 01:31 | to the puzzling YouTube decision. | |
| 01:58 | Let’s remind the viewers that about a month ago Shurat HaDin [Israel Law Center] group published a similar video | |
| 02:02 | about anti-Semitic incitement on Facebook. The group started a campaign on the crowd-funding HeadStart site. | |
| 02:07 | The money is for billboards near Zuckerberg house. | |
| 02:11 | http://www.headstart.co.il/project.aspx?id=17698&lan=en-US — Here is Facebook’s response: | |
| 02:14 | “Facebook did not take any action to prevent the page from being displayed in Israel. | |
| 02:19 | Nevertheless, users have the option to limit the scope of the countries, | |
| 02:22 | where their page can be displayed” |
Ultimately, the jihad against anti-Semitic content is as inane and fruitless as the jihad against “Islamophobia”. In both cases, the appropriate response is to allow non-abusive assertions, and fight it out through facts and reason. Perhaps a little general criticism would not be entirely bad for some groups.
I recognize that you can have organized campaigns of assertions and misdirection that is not related to seeking the truth, and in that case, it is appropriate for moderators to control the content.
My own personal opinion is that it is very important for people to learn to deal with unpleasant assertions on a direct basis, rather than trying to get them banned. The only way to deal with the encroachment of Islam, intellectually and politically, is to be able to look people in the eye and say things which can be construed as hurting their feelings.