Gotcha, Facebook: Bias Against Israel

Is Facebook evenhanded in treating anti-Palestine and anti-Israel content? The Israel Law Center launched two FB pages on December 28. The titles were the same, except in this way: “Stop Palestine,” and “Stop Israel.” The daily content was the same:  “Death to all Arabs,” and “Death to all Israelis.” Pictures were added of similar violence by Israelis (including soldiers) against Palestinians, and Palestinians against Israelis. People jumped on both pages to ramp up the hate message. The “Stop Israel” page morphed into more diffused hate against Jews. The other page did not receive posts that hated on Muslims.

On December 30, the Center reported both pages to FB as being in violation of Facebook’s Internet policies against hate speech and incitements to violence. Facebook shut down the “Stop Palestine” site on December 30. But Facebook did not shut down the “Stop Israel” page, and its "Death to All Israelis" feature. The Law Center anticipated this result, and launched a video montage of both pages, and Facebook’s diametrically opposed responses.  After the video went viral, Facebook took down the “Death to All Israelis” page, apologized, and reaffirmed its position on not posting hate speech. Meanwhile, the Center has a lawsuit against Facebook for refusing to take down pages that incite stabbings of Israelis. For more, see Sheila Kugel’s informative op-ed piece. Click here.