Meta has said it will expand its hate speech policy to cover more uses of the word “Zionist” when applied to Jews or Israelis on its platform.

We will now remove messages targeting ‘Zionists’ in several areas where our investigation has shown that the term tends to be used to refer to Jews and Israelis, with dehumanising comparisons, calls to harm, or denials of existence," the company said in a press release on Tuesday.

In December, Human Rights Watch said that Meta was guilty of “systemic censorship of Palestine content” during Israel’s war on Gaza.

  • Mrkawfee@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Zionists: It’s anti Semitic to say Zionists control social media.

    Also Zionists: from now on you’re not allowed to criticize us on social media.

  • chrash0@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    most Zionists i’ve met are white Protestants, and most Jews i’ve met aren’t Zionists…

  • bazus1@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Headline next week: Meta has said it will expand its hate speech policy to cover more uses of the word “Nazi” when applied to white males on its platform.

    • Manos@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Probably fitting. Babbling leftists have thrown that word around so much its lost all meaning as well.

      • MajinBlayze@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Let’s not pretend that there isn’t an active effort to undermine the meaning of Nazi. I’ve seen many more claims of Nazi being overused than I have of anyone actually accusing someone of being a Nazi, in good faith or otherwise

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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    2 months ago

    Conflating Jews and Zionists is obligatory for Mark “Donated $125.000 to Zaka” Zuckerberg.

    Also denial of the existence of israel is now forbidden in Germany and on Meta platforms. Free speech btw.

        • MajinBlayze@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Pretending the state of Israel isn’t a form of regional power doesn’t make it go away.

          Don’t get me wrong, Israel has shown time and again that it does not deserve that power and must be dismantled. But that doesn’t sound like what the law is talking about.

          Maybe I’m being overly pedantic about the language in use

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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            2 months ago

            To be clear I’m talking about the government form of one single state and calling it Palestine, Not booting out everyone living there.

            Israel could be recognized as a country. In fact Palestinians have presented a two state solution for mutual recognition. If israel accepts it, it will become a country. Even Hamas has said to be open to this

            Palestinians have the right to recognize israel as a country as they have stolen their land. We do not have that right. Lucky for israel if they aren’t super Nazis looking to expand their Lebensraum, they can agree to that two state solution right now.

    • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      Also denial of the existence of israel is now forbidden in Germany and on Meta platforms. Free speech btw.

      Maybe it’s just me, but calling for the eradication of a country is bad (controversial take, I know)

      • Flyswat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        Zionists are not following Judaism. If you ask some orthodox jewish people living in occupied Palestine they’ll tell you they are in exile and are not allowed to have their country until the arrival of the Messiah, that they are simply living in that land that belongs to whoever it belonged to.

        Zionists on the other hand are imperialist colonizers who took the land from its owners. So asking for the land to be returned to its rightful owners is legitimate, and this translates to the end of the existance of the state created on wrongfully seized land.

        This should not be conflated with eradicating the people. The people could live there with the local Muslims, Christians and Jews as they did before. Although I know we don’t live in a fairy tale. If the occupying state is dismantled, how can one live peacefully with the people who tortured you, your family and society for decades and made your life hell…

        Edit: adding link to interview

        • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          If the occupying state is dismantled, how can one live peacefully with the people who tortured you, your family and society for decades and made your life hell…

          South Africa pulled it off. But yes, it basically required dismantling the state completely from what it was. South Africa as it existed before and after apartheid are essentially different states with the same name. They got a new Constitution and everything. They still have a lot of problems with the white population having a majority of the land and money, but there’s nowhere near the violence there was beforehand. Everyone mostly lives in peace together now. It can be done. The same thing happened with the IRA in the UK.

          We would need to do the same thing. Dismantle Israel completely down to its roots, build something new in the same place from scratch, a place for both Palestinians and Israelis can live together. Some people would be pissed and there’d be some trouble in the beginning, but most people want to live in peace.

          • Flyswat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 months ago

            I’ll edit the link to mention these are orthodox jews who were interviewed.

            I didn’t know how few are the Jews who actually heed their religion.

            To be noted regarding Pew’s poll is that the number of those who believe that the land was promised to the Jews does not say whether they believe they should be owning it now or it shall only become theirs once the Messiah comes.

        • 0x0@programming.dev
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          2 months ago

          Zionists are not following Judaism. If you ask jewish people living in occupied Palestine they’ll tell you they are in exile and are not allowed to have their country until the arrival of the Messiah, that they are simply living in that land that belongs to whoever ot belonged to.

          Zionists om the other hand are imperialist colonisers who took the land from its owners. So asking for the land to return to its rightful owners is legitimate, and this translates to the end of the existance of the state created on wrongfully seized land.

          So, per your words, jewish people are zionists who use religion as an excuse to occupy a land that is not theirs (and keep expanding with more settlers every chance they get). Also, isn’t israel supposed to be their god given country? Why would they leave?

          • Flyswat@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 months ago

            No, what I said is that Zionism opposes Judaism. Zionists seemingly are not religious but twist what the religion says to enact their colonial goals.

        • 0x0@programming.dev
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          2 months ago

          Zionists are not following Judaism. If you ask jewish people living in occupied Palestine they’ll tell you they are in exile and are not allowed to have their country until the arrival of the Messiah, that they are simply living in that land that belongs to whoever ot belonged to.

          Zionists om the other hand are imperialist colonisers who took the land from its owners. So asking for the land to return to its rightful owners is legitimate, and this translates to the end of the existance of the state created on wrongfully seized land.

          So, per your words, jewish people are zionists who use religion as an excuse to occupy a land that is not theirs (and keep expanding with more settlers every chance they get). Also, isn’t israel supposed to be their god given country? Why would they leave?

        • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          I agree, but not a Palestine that occupies 100% of Israel.

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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            2 months ago

            Israel is not a country.

            If israel wants to exist it can accept a two state solution with Palestine right now.

            You do not get to decide whether a colony is a country. The natives do.

            Saying israel is a country is similar to saying Crimea is actually Russian.

            • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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              2 months ago

              Israel is not a country.

              OK I’m done with this conversation, lmao. Didn’t have to scratch your surface very much for the full-on hate to come out. Interesting how that happens so often with people who profess to simply be anti-zionist.

              • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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                2 months ago

                Recognition of israel comes from Palestinians not from posturing hypocrites.

                • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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                  2 months ago

                  Thanks for the explanation, person who believes Jews are not native to Israel:

                  You do not get to decide whether a colony is a country. The natives do.

                  Definitely not a ragingly anti-Semitic opinion there, nope! Edit: same for the downvoters too. You all need to take a step back and re-examine your views. Jews have lived there for 3000 years.

    • daddyjones@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      shown that the term tends to be used to refer to Jews and Israelis, with dehumanising comparisons, calls to harm, or denials of existence,"

      This is not confusing the two - this is specifically targeting anti-semitism

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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        2 months ago

        No this is banning criticism of israel along with it. Using Judaism as a shield for Zionists.

        If they wanted to ban antisemitism they would not have included non-antisemitism in there.

        • daddyjones@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          You think that dehumanising, calling for harm or denials of Jewish existence aren’t anti-semitism?

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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            2 months ago

            Why are you bringing up Judaism?

            The article separately mentions Zionism. This has nothing to do with Judaism.

            • daddyjones@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              You mentioned Judaism. You think Zionism had nothing to do with Judaism? You think dehumanising anyone - including Zionists is ok?

      • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        That is exactly it. Antisemites figured out a while back that they could say whatever they want about Jews as long as they swap out the word Zionist. This has been a feature of white supremacy for ages. It used to be “people with big noses” or “people who wear hats” or even “bankers,” or “globalists.” The latter two are more similar to the use of “Zionist” because they represent actual groups that people criticize. That gives more cover to the actual antisemites.

        This is actually a good thing, because it removes that cover from bigots who want to hijack the movement and hide behind it.

        • tjsauce@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Isn’t it incredibly dangerous to ban “Zionist” only because it’s misused? It can be used to legitimately describe people who have a vested interest in Isreal occupying Palestine. I understand it’s used as a slur, but banning otherwise normal words will make the discourse much more difficult.

          • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Who said anything about banning it? You can read the full statement here. As I said, this is about bigots co-opting the word to say bigoted shit, taking into account the nuance of how a word can be used or misused. Literally no one other than propagandists are talking about Meta “banning” the word.

            We do not allow content that attacks people on the basis of protected characteristics such as nationality, race, or religion, among others. We do allow people to criticize adherents of political affiliations and ideologies.

            • tjsauce@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              My apologies, I did not read the article on the assumption Meta would choose the irresponsible option. The article was surprisingly nuanced, and I hope the enforcement of Meta’s policies are equally nuanced.

  • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Lol have you ever tried to report abuse on Facebook or Instagram?

    They won’t do shit about obvious racist abuse or hate speech. Let them define what they want, they will do what they always do - nothing.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 months ago

      Their algorithm appears to work on bots only which auto crawl content for words.

      When it comes to media they do remove some material there are a few articles of people working in a meta moderation centers with traumas from what they have seen posted.

  • StaySquared@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    So… hate speech toward a political ideology? Are they going to do the same for the other political ideologies?

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It is specifically not that. It’s about people misusing the term “Zionists” to refer to Jews, which is also a thing that happens.

      The complete statement is here if you want to see it. The posted article does a pretty poor job explaining it.

      • StaySquared@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Okay… so people call white cis males, “fascists”

        So we need to make it fair then and make all speech against political ideologies as, “hate speech”.

        Any one person supporting the elimination of our right to free speech should be turned into its basic form of carbon without hesitation.

        • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Sorry, but I believe that terror groups (such as the KKK, Proud Boys, GDL, ISIS/Daesh, NJP, Patriot Front) should not be allowed unlimited free reign to spread their message and recruit followers but that’s just me. I understand the argument for unlimited free speech on every platform, but I happen to disagree.

          • Krono@lemmy.today
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            2 months ago

            But what about the terror group known as IDF? They have unlimited free reign to spread their genocidal message and recruit followers. They also buy ads, and have a budget larger than all the terror groups you mentioned combined.

          • StaySquared@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            That’s a slippery slope. That would then include political ideologies like Marxism, Zionism, Communism, Socialism, and other social-political groups you forgot to include like BLM and Anti-Fa.

  • Kaboom@reddthat.com
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    2 months ago

    Yeah, a lot of anti-zionism was clearly just thinly vieled anti-semitism. This makes sense.