Meta to Flag ‘Anti-Zionism’ Posts as Antisemite, Threats Account Restrictions
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is set to begin taking down posts that speak about “Zionists” in a manner that includes antisemitic stereotypes or that Mark Zuckerberg does not agree with.
Meta Platforms, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, revealed that it starts flagging anti-Zionism posts as antisemite, threatening to restrict pro-Palestine accounts.
If the current online social Israel-Palestine war taught us anything, it’s that one should differentiate Zionism from Judaism. But differentiating means creating a certain level of understanding each definition, but that does not mean posts should be removed, and removing posts is not a new practice for Meta. On the contrary, Facebook’s parent company takes down posts that usually involve attacking a person based on a ‘protected characteristic,’ including a person’s race, nationality, and their political views based on the class they belong to.
School of Meta
The 19th-century political movement, established on the pretense of the right of creating a sole Jewish state is called “Zionism.”
Zionism, defined as a nationalist and political movement by Theodore Herzl – the father of modern political Zionism, came to being in the last 19th century with the goal of establishing a Jewish state in state of Palestine. But why is this important? And most importantly, what is the link of this information with Meta’s latest policy?
The relationship between the Zionist movement and the creation of the Jewish state in Palestine in 1948, and its link to antisemitism is perceived by some as inherently colonialist. This has driven a certain demographic to intersect with antisemitism, with the understanding that it is a blunt denial of the Jewish people’s right to have a state of their own. In reality, not accepting Zionism is nothing but the criticism and rejection of the Israeli government’s policies of raging a seven-decade war on the indigenous people of the land of Palestine and colonizing their land.
Now that we got that out of the way, Meta…
On Tuesday, in one of its blog posts, expressed what the company thought about the term ‘Zionist.’
Meta further added that antisemitic stereotypes or threats to harm Jewish people, or even Israelis will not be tolerated on its platform, but it will make an exception only when discussing Zionist political movements as the topic can be freely debated on their platforms.
According to Neil Potts, vice president of public policy at Meta, over the past few months, a formal review has been conducted on the use of the term “Zionists” on the giant’s social platforms, even though for three years, now there have been conversations about how to deal with it.
Over these years, Potts’ team has engaged with 145 stakeholders including academics and human rights activists globally seeking an answer regarding its use on the platform.
To help them tackle issues such as comparing Zionists to war criminals, they also consulted their external Oversight Board.
According to Meta, this would be challenging to implement, as “there is no global consensus on what people mean when they use the term ‘Zionist’,” as stated in a blog post.
Educate the Educator
I am all in with Meta educating its users, but if the social giant wants to educate its users, such education must be objectively provided and set. Sadly, what the whole world sees as facts Meta labels it as misinformation.
I If Facebook’s parent wants to change its platforms and fight negativity on them, for starters, it should begin by acknowledging that what is happening in the Middle East isn’t a war on the Jewish religion, but rather a colonial movement imposed by the colonizer on a land’s indigenous people. In this case, the colonial movement happens to be labeled as Zionism. Anti-Zionism posts are not a rejection of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, but rather an adhered and utter rejection of the Israeli colonization of a land with people. A Palestine for Palestinians.
Since Meta is educating the world on the difference between Zionism and Judaism, it should educate the world on the creation of Zionism and the colonial policies set by the movement in the creation of the state of Israel. At the end of the day, it was Zuckerberg himself who advertised Meta’s platforms as networks to connect everyone, with the value of truth and bringing the world together. But it seems that the platforms are a space of ‘education for one, not for all.’
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