Social media censorship is currently under debate as the Israeli government is urging Facebook to classify discussion of the word, ‘Zionist’ under it’s hate speech policy. If agreed the use of the word, ‘Zionist’ will be restricted on Facebook and blocked for Palestinians who use the word to describe their daily lives under the Israeli occupation.
Zionism is a political ideology which is not synonymous with Judaism, not all Jews are Zionists. Israeli propaganda campaigns have created a proxy between the two terms as a means to shutdown any discussion or criticism of Israel as a form of anti-Semitism. Academics have warned, expanding the definition of anti-Semitism to cover antizionism will shut down any legitimate debate.
Several campaigns have started against Facebook enforcing this policy as governments should be held accountable for their actions, in this case free speech should be allowed against the Israeli violations of international laws and not protected by social media corporations. Shutting down these dialogues means there is no room for political debate or any discussion on diagreements about different ideologies, or government actions towards the safety and human rights of their communities, anywhere in this world.
Jewish Voice for Peace have started this petition urging Facebook not to add the word ‘Zionist’ to the hate speech category and started the following hashtag campaign #FacebookWeNeedToTalk
“cooperating with the Israeli government’s request would undermine efforts to dismantle real antisemitism, deprive Palestinians of a crucial venue for expressing their political viewpoints to the world, and help the Israeli government avoid accountability for its violations of Palestinian rights.”
Jewish Voice for Peace Press Release
Facebook will make a decision by the end of February 2021.
