Facebook meets Jewish community leaders in wake of Wiley outrage

Representatives from four communal organisations — the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council, the Community Security Trust and the Antisemitism Policy Trust — took part in a high-level consultation meeting with senior policy officials from Facebook on Friday, including the social media giant’s vice-president, Nicola Mendelsohn.

The meeting was private and no statements have been released by either side as to the content of the discussions. But Jewish News understands that the meeting was called in the aftermath of heightened communal concerns about various failures on both Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the wake of the row over Wiley.  

He is the Grime music artist whose repeated attacks on Jews eventually led to his banning from all social media platforms, though not before a huge number of people had staged a 48-hour “walkout” from Twitter, where Wiley’s attacks began. 

The government is currently proposing an Online Harms Bill, whose implications were discussed. Last month Facebook announced that it was adding such antisemitic tropes as “Jews run the world” or “Jews control the media” to its list of “harmful stereotypes” which would be banned from posts.  

It is understood that the Facebook team were fully aware of Jewish communal concerns, but no undertakings were made to the community as a result of the meeting.