Facebook refuses to remove antisemitic meme from platform

The social media site said the image didn't violate their Community Standards and wasn't considered hate speech.

DECEMBER 18, 2019 05:18

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(photo credit: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION/FILE PHOTO)

As online hate speech continues to become even an even more important issue, calls for social media platforms to control and ban hateful content become more frequent, as do cries to protect free speech. As such, platforms must determine whether something actually qualifies as hate speech, with some allegedly objectionable content being protected as non-offensive free speech.

This seems to be what happened on Facebook, when an antisemitic meme uploaded to the site wasn't removed despite being reported.

The meme, uploaded on December 15 to the Facebook page Liberty Memes 777, depicts signs thumbtacked to a board reading "Media," "Pornography," "Hollywood," "The 1%," "Government" and "Banking," with a line of cloth connecting each sign, forming the shape of a Star of David, while a man looks at it suspiciously and asks "How are they all connected?"

The comments on the article mostly consisted of memes, ranging from images of a dog defecating dislikes to a GIF of Sheldon Cooper from the TV series The Big Bang Theory saying "It's funny because it's true."

A Twitter user named Jon B. reported the meme, but was told by Facebook in a reply that their moderators determined that it didn't violate their Community Standards and wasn't considered hate speech.

"So nice to see that Facebook tolerates #AntiSemitic postings as 'not against community standards,'" he tweeted.

So nice to see that Facebook tolerates #AntiSemitic postings as “not against community standards”. pic.twitter.com/NnDYlI3qIz
— Jon B. (@JonEMTP) December 17, 2019

The creator behind the meme, identified as Hedgewik, uploaded it to his website on December 10.

Remastered version of a classic comic.https://t.co/N7bwLuT4CA pic.twitter.com/VGaaeR0ogb
— HedgeWik (@HedgeWikComics) December 11, 2019

"This is disgusting and you should be ashamed you anti-Semite," said one comment.

Hedgewik responded, "k."

Liberty Memes 777 is a page dedicated to posting memes, and includes such memes as calling Osama bin Laden's niece a "Solid 9/11" and memes making fun of the UPS truck shootout in Florida.

Antisemitism has become more frequent on Facebook. Recently, seven pages for the pro-Israel NGO StandWithUs were hacked, with the admins locked out and the profile picture replaced with the ISIS logo.

Hedgewik, Jon B. and Liberty Memes 777 couldn't be reached for comment.

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Update: the meme has since been removed from Facebook.