Facebook has been accused of “enabling vicious Jewish hatred” after telling users an image depicting human remains on a shovel below the tag line “How to pick up Jewish chicks” did not breach its community standards.
The vile image was posted late last month, but was allowed to stay up until mid-September before finally being removed. This is despite the fact it was reported multiple times. The post was liked more than 21,000 times and had over 37,000 comments. Thousands of those comments were anti-Semitic, The Age reported.
Users reported the post only to receive a message from Facebook saying, “We reviewed the post you reported for displaying hate speech and found it doesn’t violate our community standards.”
After further outcry it appears Facebook finally got the message and removed the post. However, the comments thread is still available for those who likes, shared or commented, with tens of thousands of anti-Semitic comments apparently remaining.
We are glad that Facebook has finally removed the post, however, the fact the post was allowed to stay for so long and that Facebook refused to remove it multiple times shows that Facebook must address its policies.
Under its community standards policy, Facebook says it “removes hate speech” that attacks people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin and religious affiliation.
As we have reported previously, anti-Semitism is the most common form of racism on the internet. Facebook must do more to tackle this growing hatred.