Meta’s transparency center released its Meta’s recognition that the word “Zionist” has been and continues to be used as a proxy term, or euphemism for the word “Jew, a gap that has allowed antisemitic posts to avoid detection and flagging as antisemitic speech according to the social media platforms’ digital policy and moderation resources. The latest update will lead to added policy enforcement by Meta’s moderators.
Meta released a statement saying that they revisited the issue of speech targeting “Zionists,” particularly when it is used to dehumanize, harm, or deny the existence of Jews and Israelis. After extensive research and consultations, they will now remove such content. The term “Zionist” is often used as a proxy for Jewish or Israeli people, which are protected characteristics under their Hate Speech policy. They have involved 145 stakeholders globally to understand the usage and implications of the term.
They will enforce the removal of content comparing Zionists to rats, using antisemitic stereotypes, or calling for harm. The question of whether to allow comparisons of Zionists to criminals has been referred to their independent Oversight Board for guidance. The organization aims to balance removing harmful content while protecting legitimate free expression about Zionists. Enforcing this policy will take time and effort to train reviewers and systems on these nuances.
The Combat Anti Semitism Movement (CAM) praised Meta’s decision to ban the term “Zionists” as a negative substitute term for Jewish people and Israelis in relation to certain types of hateful attacks. According to Meta’s Policy Forum update from today, it will now remove content that targets “Zionists” with dehumanizing comparisons, calls for harm, or denials of existence on the basis that “Zionist” in those instances often appears to be a proxy for Jewish or Israeli people.
CAM has been working on this and similar issues with the Meta Policy Forum.
“We applaud this decision taken by Meta’s Policy Forum, and the understanding that appropriating the term ‘Zionists’ to hide blatant Jew hatred has no place on their platforms,” said CEO of CAM Sacha Roytman Dratwa. “This is an important first step towards ending the immunity and impunity for anti-Semites online.”
“For too long, anti-Semites have been allowed their incitement and Jew hatred by merely changing key words like Zionists and Zionism, which is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people in its indigenous and ancestral homeland. The Jewish People’s enemies have not only appropriated Jewish indigenous terminology, but they have also used it as a weapon against us. Meta’s decision is welcome because it recognizes this and draws a heavy red line against it.”
Meta’s Policy Forum’s update states that “Going forward, we will remove content attacking “Zionists” when it is not explicitly about the political movement, but instead uses antisemitic stereotypes, or threatens other types of harm through intimidation, or violence directed against Jews or Israelis under the guise of attacking Zionists, including claims about running the world or controlling the media, dehumanizing comparisons, such as comparisons to pigs, filth, or vermin, calls for physical harm, denials of existence, and mocking for having a disease.”
“We hope other social media and online companies will follow Meta’s leadership on this issue,” said Roytman Dratwa. “We have seen all too regularly how online incitement and abuse, especially Antisemitism, has led to real-life harm to Jews, Jewish communities, and Jewish institutions, and this can only be stopped if those who allow the flow of hate ensure its cessation immediately.”
CyberWell, an innovative tech nonprofit focused on monitoring and combating the spread of antisemitism and Holocaust denial online, welcomed Meta’s recognition that the word “Zionist” has been and continues to be used as a proxy term for the word “Jew.” The online antisemitism watchdog commended Meta’s commitment to improving and enforcing its existing digital hate speech policies to moderate posts targeting “Zionists” through the promulgation of conspiracy theories about Jewish global dominance, in its use when associated with dehumanizing Jews and when posts incite violence against Jewish people.
In its role as a trusted partner of Meta, CyberWell submitted data-centered analysis on the use of “Zionist” as a replacement for “Jew,” often avoiding detection and flagging as antisemitic speech according to the social media platforms’ digital policy and moderation resources.
Now that Meta has recognized “Zionist” can be used as a euphemism for “Jew,” CyberWell intends to leverage its technological tools and analysis efforts to ensure this policy is implemented efficiently and fully, and that Meta’s moderation tools are trained to effectively bar this content.
“While the online spread of antisemitism has been a growing issue over the course of the last decade, Oct. 7 and its aftermath brought a new alarming level of acute efforts using the digital space to spread hate against Jews, dehumanize Jewish individuals and communities and to call for violence against them,” said CyberWell Founder and Executive Director Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor. “As many platforms were caught in the lurch of the largest hijacking of social media platforms by a terrorist group and their apologists, these calls to violence and hatred, often featuring coded language like using the term ‘Zionists’, were amplified by algorithms, ultimately supercharging the open hostility against Jews in online and offline spaces, targeting them across the globe.”
“The use of the term ‘Zionist’ to spread antisemitic vitriol while avoiding detection has been used by radicals on the far Left and extremists on the far Right. Today, Meta has spoken through thoughtful action. By acknowledging the phobic nature of when abuse of the term ‘Zionist’ is meant to spread bigotry and fear, they are actively protecting a targeted minority group of users on their platform that are currently experiencing the worst wave of targeted hate since the Holocaust. We are thankful to our partners at Meta for taking this step, and we hope that other platforms follow suit. With clear policy, safer digital spaces for everyone are possible,” she added.
