Facebook Pulls “Third Palestinian Intifada Page”: Violent Incitement Overrules Free Speech
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The first Palestinian Intifada (meaning “Uprising” in Arabic: الانتفاضة) began in 1987 and the second in 2000. With the recent flock of revolution in the Middle East, a third was called for – via social media – to take shape in 2011.
The Facebook Page “Third Palestinian Intifada,” which drew in more than 340,000 members and originally called for Palestinians to peacefully protest after Friday prayers on May 15th, was removed on March 29th because of its hateful statements and violent commentary against Israel’s Jewish population.
In response to Facebook’s decision to remove the Page, one Haaretz commenter got 75 ‘Thumbs Up’ (and one ‘Dislike’) for saying: “Free speech doesn’t equal hate speech,” while another for 78 ‘Thumbs Up’ for saying: “So much for free speech.” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Discussions Page hosts banter between pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians via the topic views “Third Palestinian Intifada?????” and “http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=68310606562&topic=23732.”
The Facebook Page “Third Palestinian Intifada,” which drew in more than 340,000 members and originally called for Palestinians to peacefully protest after Friday prayers on May 15th, was removed on March 29th because of its hateful statements and violent commentary against Israel’s Jewish population.
In response to Facebook’s decision to remove the Page, one Haaretz commenter got 75 ‘Thumbs Up’ (and one ‘Dislike’) for saying: “Free speech doesn’t equal hate speech,” while another for 78 ‘Thumbs Up’ for saying: “So much for free speech.” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Discussions Page hosts banter between pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians via the topic views “Third Palestinian Intifada?????” and “http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=68310606562&topic=23732.”
The Facebook Page “Join the effort to delete the group “Third Palestinian Intifada”” posted a link to the warning message that informed of the Page’s cancelation. Though the link is now inaccessible – when it was previously accessible – it read: “…Pages that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed. We also take down Pages that attack an individual, or group, or that are set up by an unauthorized individual…”
Middle East online says: “the social networking site said that in general it was loath to take down pages that expressed criticism, believing in free speech.” However, a Facebook representative told The Jerusalem Post: “…after the publicity of the page, more comments deteriorated to direct calls for violence. Eventually, the page’s creators also participated in these calls. After administrators of the page received repeated warnings about posts that violated our policies, we removed the page.”
Jerome Barron, a law professor and First Amendment expert at George Washington University, told the Associated Press: “Facebook does not fall under the guidelines of US freedom of expression legislation and is free to decide on its own policies.” Thus, in Facebook’s Terms of Use: Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which is derived from Section 3/7 of Facebook’s Principals, says: “You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.”
Debbie Frost, Facebook spokeswoman, told Bloomberg in an email: “We continue to believe that people on Facebook should be able to express their opinions, and we don’t typically take down content that speaks out against countries, religions, political entities or ideas. However, we monitor pages that are reported to us and when they degrade to direct calls for violence or expressions of hate — as occurred in this case — we have and will continue to take them down.” Andrew Noyes, a spokesman for Facebook, told FoxNews.com the social network would continue to take down Page announcing “direct calls for violence or expressions of hate.”
Abraham H. Foxman, Director of the Anti-Defamation League, which called out against the Page’s anti-Semitic messages and thus applauded the Page’s removal, said the social networking website “…has now recognized an important standard to be applied when evaluating issues of non-compliance with its terms of service involving distinctions between incitement to violence and legitimate calls for collective expressions of opinion and action.”
Yuli Edelstein, Israel’s Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, said that the Page’s removal indicated: “Facebook management understood that the page is a blunt abuse of freedom of speech to incite to violent actions.” Edelstein signed a letter he sent to the social networking site’s founder Zuckerberg not only as an Israeli political figure, but as “someone who believes in the values of free speech, and knows that there is a difference between freedom of expression and incitement.”
In a recent development of events, Larry Klayman, former Justice Department prosecutor and founder of Judicial Watch and FreedomWatch, has sued both Facebook and its founder Zuckerberg over $1 billion after the social networking’s failure to swiftly remove the Page. According to FreedomWatch: “The complaint alleges assault and negligence, including willful and wanton conduct, gross negligence and recklessness on the part of the Defendants, as it has put Mr. Klayman’s life at risk, as well as other similarly situated Jews who are prominent public figures and otherwise.” TechCrunch obtained a copy of the seven page complaint.*Photo taken from The Jerusalem Post article “Facebook removes ‘3rd intifada’ page,” by Courtesy: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=214292
