Tweeting antisemitism
Australia’s B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has commended Twitter for creating a new ‘safety centre’ that will assist users in reporting antisemitic tweets.
This follows a sharp increase in online-antisemitism over the last few years and is aimed at enhancing users’ safety and enforcing Twitter’s guidelines about abusive content. The new online portal enable users to deal more effectively with trolls, bullies and hate-mongers by providing an easy to understand list of Twitter’s safety tools and features.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
Dvir Abramovich
“It is pleasing to see that Twitter, one of the giants of the internet, is putting in place mechanisms to further curb and counter the spread of antisemitism, radicalism and racism, and for this they deserve credit. Social media companies have an obligation to reduce the prevalence of hate speech and to protect readers from harassing and intimidating posts that provoke and call for violence.
As we have stated before, Twitter should not serve as the platform of choice for bigots and other purveyors of prejudice to easily and instantaneously disseminate their odious messages. We know that increasingly, right-wing and white-supremacist groups and individuals have been flocking to Twitter to transmit their malicious ideologies. Posing even a greater threat is the use of Twitter by terrorists to broadcast their dangerous propaganda and to recruit members to their cause.
Service provides have a responsibility to create proper boundaries and rules that enable readers to flag and lodge complaints that swiftly lead to the removal of malicious posts and to the barring of offending users. We are hopeful that Twitter will continue to address the very troubling trend of digital hate and that it will keep developing new technologies and strategies to counteract this growing menace.”
