Ten thousand sign petition urging Facebook to remove anti-Semitic pages

An online campaign calling for greater action to remove anti-Semitic content from Facebook has attracted more than 10,000 supporters, writes Justin Cohen.

A letter to the social network’s founder Mark Zuckerberg claimed that the number of anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist pages “are growing by the minute. Despite the option to report these pages, most reports are ignored. The pages that are allowed are vile, horrific, hateful and filled with classic anti-Semitism and Jewish stereotypes”.

The petition calls for the site to “change the community standards and stop the hate now”. One such page, which claims that Jews ritually sacrifice Christian children, remains online.

Anna Berg and Hanna Zion from Sweden created a Facebook event page, with the names of those indicating their attendance added to the petition. Support has come from around the world, with the number of supporters rising by around 1,000 daily in recent days. They plan to send the names to Zuckerberg himself.

Berg, an art director, said: “The idea for this event actually started about a year ago after reporting many anti-Semitic pages and photos on Facebook – that weren’t removed despite their so called Community Standards that do not allow hate speech. When you start looking for these pages it’s quite disgusting.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s Culture Secretary Maria Miller has warned internet trolls to expect arrest if they threaten or insult people online. In a speech to the Oxford Media Convention, the Cabinet minister said there was a “straightforward principle” that “the rules that apply offline are the same rules that apply online”.

She said: “The internet isn’t a ‘Second Life’, it isn’t something where different rules apply, where different behaviour is acceptable – it isn’t the wild west.”