While many consider
Facebook is the undisputed leader in social networking, its vast reach surely
makes it an easy place to spread hate. Anyone can create a Facebook group at
any time on any subject, and it is both impossible and impractical to monitor
all posts. When improper posts are made, Facebook makes people jump through
hoops to complain then you can wait 24-48 hours for a response. By then,
however, the damage is done.
 Boycott Watch was approached by Michael
Mendelson from Sunny Isles, Florida with complaints about anti-Semitic groups
on Facebook. According to the complaint, several hate groups existed for a long
time but Facebook would not remove them. Mr. Mendelson has been organizing
groups to fight anti-Semitism on Facebook including one called
Removing
Hate Pages but he keeps hitting a wall when trying to get anti-Semitic
content removed per the published Facebook guidelines. We examined the claim
and found it to be true. On the right is an example of blatant anti-Semitic
content on Facebook that Andrea Ragni of The Outcast Agency feels is acceptable
and refuses to remove. Notice the comment on top:
Boycott Watch spoke with Andrea Ragni of The Outcast Agency, which is the Public
Relations agency hired by Facebook. As a rule, Boycott Watch does not like
dealing with PR agencies because PR agents are consistently more interested in
retaining their own jobs than actually resolving issues; which is what we first
believed would only be the case here but as our research progressed we
discovered a far worse situation. While some anti-Semitic groups were removed
as a result of our complaint, we later realized we may have just been appeased
so the PR agent could claim action was taken to resolve the issue. At first,
Andrea Ragni did not appear to understand the gravity of the situation. We do
not believe Facebook would approve groups with names such as "F#@! Israel" to
exist, but for some odd reason Andrea Ragni felt the group with the openly
vulgar and hate language is appropriate, not to mention in a media where
children frequent. Citing Facebook policies did not matter to Andre Ragni and
we could not figure out why.
The lengthy email
correspondence about the content of the hate pages included the photos above. I
received a reply from Andrea Ragni of The Outcast Agency saying they consider
calling Jews "dogs" being freedom of expression, and removing it would
constitute "harm." Sadly, no matter how many times Boycott Watch brought up the
fact that hate groups on Facebook are echoing the Nazi mantra of Jews being
dogs, Andrea Ragni of The Outcast
Agency did not care - it was as if she believed the Nazi comparison of Jews
to dogs was acceptable. We even asked her if she accepted that Nazi mantra
directly but she refused to respond.
We also sent
the Facebook spokesperson a famous quote of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as
relayed in a story by Dr. Seymour Martin Lipset, as published in the December,
1969 (page 24) edition of Encounter magazine. The article "The Socialism of
Fools: The Left, the Jews and Israel" states:
"Shortly before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King, Jr., was in Boston on
a fund-raising mission, and I had the good fortune to attend a dinner which was
given for him in Cambridge...One of the young men present happened to make some
remark against the Zionists. Dr. King snapped at him and said, "Don't talk like
that! When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking
anti-Semitism!"
As such, Rev. Dr. King would call
the Facebook group Anti-Semitic. Therefore, since Facebook would not allow KKK
groups, for example, I believe the "F-Israel" group too should be classified as
a hate group and therefore be considered Hate Speech as defined in the
Facebook community
standards terms as follows: "Facebook does not permit hate speech, but
distinguishes between serious and humorous speech. While we encourage you to
challenge ideas, institutions, events, and practices, we do not permit
individuals or groups to attack others based on their race, ethnicity, national
origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical
condition."
Unfortunately, we were not able to
contact Facebook officials directly, but one thing is certain -
The Outcast Agency and Andrea Ragni
in specific believe that it is permissible to allow hatred of Jews to flourish
on Facebook despite it clearly being against Facebook policy.
Meanwhile, Facebook has been inundated with complaints
about pages such as this one but has yet
to act on it. We believe these complaints end up at the desk of Andrea Ragni
who apparently believes foul language against Jews is acceptable despite being
against Facebook policy, believes hatred of Jews is acceptable on Facebook
despite being against Facebook policy, who believes it is acceptable to refer
to Jews as dogs the way the Nazis did, and who refused to learn the lessons of
Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.
This leads
Boycott Watch to conclude Andrea Ragni is an anti-Semite and she therefore has
no business being in charge of determining what is anti-Semitic or not, as she
has demonstrated she allows Jews to be called dogs in the Nazi tradition.
At Boycott Watch, we do not accept the response from any
entity saying the removal of Anti-Semitic content will cause "harm to the
people who use our service," which is the statement we received from Andrea
Ragni. There is actual hate harm against Jews, and it is being allowed to
flourish on Facebook thanks to Andrea Ragni and her employer
The Outcast Agency.
Fred Taub, the President of Boycott Watch said "This is
far more than a case of defending free speech this created a safe-haven outlet
to promote a Nazi mantra. Hate speech against any other group is banned per
Facebook policies and would be removed, but in this case hate speech against
Jews is allowed despite those policies. That is why this crossed the line to
become blatant anti-Semitism. Facebook is being used as a springboard to
promote hatred of Jews and an insider is protecting anti-Semitism. That is
unless Facebook and Andrea Ragni of The
Outcast Agency think Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was wrong. Boycotting
Facebook is like trying to boycott water, so people need to stand up and demand
an end to this scourge."
As Boston Globe reporter
Jeff Jacoby wrote in his article
The
cancer of anti-Semitism in Europe, "Anti-Semitism is like cancer;
unchecked, it can metastasize and sicken the entire body." Boycott Watch
therefore encourages people to both complain to Facebook online and to call
The Outcast Agency at 415.392.8282,
or their New York City office at 646.737.9921, and ask why Andrea Ragni is
allowing and even protecting anti-Semitism on Facebook, and to demand the hate
content is immediately removed. Zev Jabotonisky who was one of the founders of
Israel would often say "silence is despicable." We must not be silent to
anti-Semitism. |
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| Click Here to read the
follow-up article with more photos |
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