Nearly 130 advocacy and Jewish groups are pressing Facebook to crack down on anti-Semitic content, which they say continues to plague the social media giant and goes largely unpoliced.
The advocacy groups—including some of the most prominent American Jewish organizations such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, and the Endowment for Middle East Truth—are calling on Facebook to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s official definition of anti-Semitism, which includes the systematic singling out of Jewish people with hateful rhetoric and violence. This definition has already been endorsed by the State Department and more than 40 other nations.
Facebook in May said it does not have a policy to combat online anti-Semitism, a disclosure that has lent new urgency to the groups' effort.
Facebook and other social media sites have grappled with the proliferation of anti-Semitic hate speech as it has skyrocketed globally. While many of these sites have begun to police speech, including that of President Donald Trump, little has been done to stem the spread of anti-Semitism, including by world leaders such as Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
"Jews today, like many other minority communities, are being targeted and attacked in record numbers," the organizations wrote in an Aug. 7 letter to Facebook executives. "They experience physical violence, harassment, and discrimination offline and online."
The organizations say they hope their public letter to Facebook pressures the social media giant into taking greater action.