” Who financed the Holocaust ? A. The Japanese B. zionism C. The Arabs. “It is the multiple choice question published by Attila Hildmann, chef de cuisine vegan German a very well-known and author of successful books on his account Telegram, followed by more than 60 000 people. For 87 % of the almost 6 000 responses which have been made, what are the ” zionists “.
A message on the Twitter account of a religious leader of the first plan, described my country as “a cancer, a malignant tumor” it is ” delete “.
today, two pandemics rage : the Covid-19, which contaminates the body, and that hate speech and anti-semitism online, as illustrated by the examples above, which infects the minds and spreads on all the major social networks. For hate online, just like the Covid-19, just a few individuals contaminated as the disease spreads, often without the infected person, the note, and reaches the whole of society. Sometimes, the disease – the symptoms are not very visible – will appear as innocuous, but, in some cases, it will be fatal.
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Just like other minorities, the jews have been protesting for more than a decade against this virus of hatred which they denounce the dangers to the health of the social body, and the sustainability of the democratic order. Like the LGBT, Blacks, Asians, or muslims, are the jews who are the victims year after year. Researchers who have attempted to measure the phenomenon of hate speech online have been surprised by its magnitude. In this avalanche of hate, the Anti-Defamation League – a non-governmental organization dedicated to the fight against racism and anti-semitism – are estimated to be approximately 4.2 million the number of anti-semitic messages published on Twitter by 2017. At the beginning of the month of July 2020, 25 000 accounts that YouTube has had to remove to combat hate speech online.
But, even more than by its magnitude, it is its consequences that the phenomenon has to worry about. If the history of anti-semitism has taught us anything, it is that rhetoric of hate can quickly turn into physical violence, in systematic persecution, or even mass murder. The origin of hate crimes (contemporary – where they occur and whatever the victims, is most often found hate speech online published first of all on the social networks. And it is for this reason that we can’t just believe that the hate speech will remain limited to the virtual world, the computers and mobile phones, or being distracted even by the best arguments in favour of freedom of expression. Our anxiety feeds off of our determination to prevent future violence.
For a number of years, the largest social networks were content to admit that there was a problem and that they need to act more. In reality, they mostly let the evil grow and have made only rare and timid measures to combat hate speech online. It would be wrong to expect anything of terms of use of these networks, which are also chatty as equivocal, especially when it comes to the transpose in the reality. If the companies involved seem to finally show a better account of the problem, this awareness is belated, should be reflected in the adoption of concrete measures. The seriousness and the efficiency of the process of the Gafa to combat the cyberhaine cannot be judged only by this standard. Two priorities should guide their first steps in this direction.
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Just like in the real world, the absolute priority in this fight is to define what falls within the incitement to hatred and anti-semitism online. There is no question that call for the murder of jews under the hate speech anti-semitic, that is it forms are more insidious but equally dangerous, which result in a rhetorical complotiste and charges as delusional as extreme such as “the jews control the global finance” and “Israelis are nazis” ? And what to say of this form wicked denial of the holocaust, minimizes the magnitude of the genocide of the jews, and to trivialise the latter by a questioning and falsely innocent as ” do not exaggerate-t-it is not the magnitude of the Holocaust ? “?
establish clear criteria to define anti-semitism on social networks is a necessity. It is necessary to be able to define what it wishes to combat. Fortunately, such a definition already exists. It was provided to us in 2016 by the intergovernmental organization IHRA (international Alliance for the memory of the Holocaust), which has adopted an operational definition of anti-semitism. It has been formally adopted by over thirty countries, as well as by the european Parliament. This definition is the subject of a consensus. Therefore, one may expect that the quasi-sovereign that are Facebook, Twitter, Google, and TikTok the endorse to turn. Criticize the behavior of minorities or the policy of the State of Israel is not necessarily hate speech or anti-semitism ; the definition of the IHRA also states that ” criticism of Israel similar to and in ways similar to the criticism of the policy of the other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic “.
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the Second priority, that of transparency and the need to implement a media watch of hate speech and anti-semitic. In Germany, the law submits them to the social networks to the obligation to publish regular reports on complaints are addressed, including those related to hate speech, and the steps that have been taken by the company to respond. Last year, Facebook has been fined 2 million euros for having minimized the number of reported cases of cyberhaine. Social networks should include the need to adopt a policy of open and transparent communication regarding reports of this type and it is to an external auditor and independent, should be assigned the burden of establishing these reports.
The rules should apply to everyone, without exception. Among the examples I cited in the introduction was that of a religious leader in the foreground, which is none other than Ali Khamenei, the supreme guide of the islamic revolution, the highest position of the islamic Republic of Iran. The rules for using Twitter are without ambiguity, but it does : the messages of the supreme guide calling openly for the destruction of Israel have not been deleted or modified. The company flatly refuses to intervene, if only by identifying them as the ” sensitive content “. In his reply to my letter of protest, Twitter specifies that the messages of the heads of State or government are not subject to the same rules. Hence my question : how is a call for the elimination of a country can it be seen as anything other than an incitement to violence and hate speech ? It is not possible to minimize the incitement to hatred, especially when it emanates a personality that carries the highest responsibilities of the State. Describe the jewish State of “cancerous tumor” is a typical example of anti-semitic rhetoric dehumanizing aimed at preparing the minds for the destruction of Israel as the State of the jewish people.
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According to a recent statement from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook intends to fight against any attempts that might be made to dissuade some voters go to the polls and encourage others to the violence during the us presidential election in November. Sheryl Sandberg, the director of operations of the third largest social network in the most visited in the world, was shortly after recognized that ” Facebook has yet to make progress in its fight against hate speech “. It is high time that the leaders of the social networks decide to act. The fight against hate speech can wait no longer. What are the platforms of social networks which guide and determine the perception of current events and the formation of public opinion. With the power of extraordinary influence, their leaders must finally accept their responsibility. We must not confuse freedom of expression and impunity in the spread of hatred.
This pandemic, we have manufactured only. If we do not take, the situation will get worse and the human toll, rise.
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