“They’re horrible and disgusting,” said Lila Mendelsohn, 16, of the events. After seeing one while browsing Facebook last week, the Los Angeles resident, a rising senior at Hamilton High School and n’siah — president — of her local B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO) chapter, reported the event to the Facebook administration but decided more needed to be done. With help from fellow BBYO member Elise Jackson, 17, Mendelsohn created an event titled “One Million Strong Against Kill a Jew Day.” Both girls invited all their Facebook friends to take action against the event and posted a link so that others could report it to Facebook. Within hours, hundreds of Facebook users had clicked that they were “attending” the “One Million Strong” event. By the next morning, the “Kill a Jew Day” event had been deactivated. In contrast, “One Million Strong” currently has over 10,000 listed as “confirmed guests.” Although Mendelsohn and Jackson acknowledge that they have already succeeded at their original goal, they believe that the sentiment behind their event still holds value. “Even though one has been taken down, many more pages and groups have been made,” Mendelsohn said. The “One Million Strong” event is just one of a number of Internet campaigns urging the removal of anti-Semitic content from the Internet or Facebook.
For the past two years, the Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF), a pro-Israel advocacy organization that cites a network of over 250,000 supporters, has worked to expose and remove anti-Semitic material online. “Our approach has always been to expose the material, get our network to report it, and call out the companies like Facebook and YouTube for their negligence in dealing with these issues effectively,” wrote JIDF founder David Appletree in an e-mail. The JIDF Web site features “Action Alerts” for various “Kill a Jew Day” events on Facebook and urges visitors to the page to report any existing events as well. Appletree believes that Facebook has failed to take a forceful enough approach toward these matters. “Their ‘enforcement’ of their own rules is inconsistent,” Appletree wrote. “Sometimes, they seem to react quickly; other times, they don’t react at all.” According to Axten, Facebook has a large team of professional investigators who review and respond “as quickly as possible” to reports from the over 400 million people who use Facebook. “The team prioritizes reports for the most serious violations, including those for nudity, pornography and harassment, which are typically handled within 24 hours.” Additionally, Axten said, Facebook disables the accounts of people who “routinely violate our policies.” Appletree believes Facebook should take a more proactive approach and immediately remove offensive material, instead of waiting for reports from users.
Other Facebook events that have sprung up include “Thrill a Jew Day,” as well as the group “We Are Disgusted by the Facebook Event ‘Kill a Jew Day.’ ” Although both the “One Million Strong Against Kill a Jew Day” event and the JIDF urge nonviolent action, other events list suggestions such as “kill a neo-Nazi” or “drown a Flotilla.” Jackson and Mendelsohn have discouraged users from posting counter-threats on their event. “We don’t want people to respond with threats of violence,” Jackson said. “It’s just as bad.” July appears to have marked an increase in Facebook events encouraging anti-Semitic violence. However, as early as last November, Haaretz reported a “Kick a Jew Day” event at a middle school in Naples, Fla., which resulted in the suspension of 10 students who had taken part in the event. “When people aren’t standing up for their rights or what they believe in, it only makes the other people stronger and allows them to step all over them,” Jackson said.
Jewish Journal
