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Facebook, Inc. Board of Directors                                                                                                                                                                     August 7^th, 2020

1 Hacker Way

Menlo Park, CA 94025

Dear Facebook Board of Directors,

We applaud your recent announce­ment regarding the revision of Facebook policy standards on hate speech, mis­in­form­a­tion, and dis­in­form­a­tion. We are confident that Facebook can suc­cess­fully protect and support users, meet corporate social respons­ib­il­ity concerns of stake­hold­ers, and continue to lead the social media industry.

As part of your efforts, we call on you to fully adopt the Inter­na­tion­al Holocaust Remem­brance Alliance (IHRA) working defin­i­tion of antisemitism as the corner­stone of Facebook’s hate speech policy regarding antisemitism.

Face­book’s Director of Content Policy Stake­hold­er Engage­ment, Peter Stern, recently attested to the use­ful­ness of the IHRA working defin­i­tion when Facebook first developed its hate speech policy. However, Mr. Stern admitted that Facebook does not have a policy aimed at com­batting online antisemitism. He further admitted that Facebook does not embrace the full adoption of the IHRA working defin­i­tion because the defin­i­tion recog­nizes that modern mani­fest­a­tions of antisemitism relate to Israel.

In accord­ance with the recom­mend­a­tions outlined in the “The New Anti­semites” report, which call on social media platforms to eliminate antisemitic content by adopting the IHRA working defin­i­tion as the basis for content removal policies, we the under­signed coalition of 124 organ­iz­a­tions, urge Facebook to implement a hate speech policy on antisemitism that includes the full IHRA working defin­i­tion at its core.

Nearly 40 countries have already endorsed or adopted the IHRA working defin­i­tion in some official capacity, either through their mem­ber­ship in the IHRA or inde­pend­ently. In the United States, in addition to the adoption by the State Depart­ment, the recent Executive Order on Com­batting Anti-Semitism instructs the Depart­ment of Education to consider the IHRA defin­i­tion when eval­u­at­ing Title VI Civil Rights Act com­plaints of dis­crim­in­a­tion.

The over­whelm­ing majority of civil society organ­iz­a­tions at the forefront of efforts to combat antisemitism endorse and encourage the use and adoption of the IHRA working defin­i­tion. Today’s antisemitism undoubtedly includes the del­e­git­im­iz­a­tion of Israel’s right to exist. This bigotry is expressed in various ways, such as the rejection of Jewish self-determ­in­a­tion, Holocaust revi­sion­ism and denial, and the applic­a­tion of double standards toward the Jewish state and people.

Will Facebook join the ranks of the his­tor­i­ans, advocates, activists, lawmakers, and leaders who compiled the IHRA working defin­i­tion? Will Facebook take respons­ib­il­ity and move toward removing the scourge of antisemitism from today’s most important online public square?

Jews today, like many other minority com­munit­ies, are being targeted and attacked in record numbers. They exper­i­ence physical violence, har­ass­ment, and dis­crim­in­a­tion offline and online.

Jews over­whelm­ingly report that online antisemitism is the most acute form of Jew-hatred they exper­i­ence.

The full IHRA working defin­i­tion of antisemitism provides Facebook an effective, neutral, and nuanced tool to protect Jewish users from hate speech and imagery that incites hate and often­times leads to violence. While the impact of online hate speech, mis­in­form­a­tion, and dis­in­form­a­tion on our society continues to be researched and explored, we cannot afford to lose any more time in fighting this bigotry and pre­vent­ing violence.

We urge Facebook to put words into action and power behind com­mit­ment – and fully adopt the IHRA working defin­i­tion of antisemitism.

Signed,

1. Academic Engage­ment Network - United States
2. Acción y Comu­nic­a­ción sobre Oriente Medio (ACOM) – Spain
3. IL – Worldwide
4. ACT Zionist Council - Australia
5. Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) - United States
6. Alums for Campus Fairness - United States
7. Am Yisrael Found­a­tion - United States
8. American-Israeli Col­lab­or­a­tion Enter­prise (AICE) - United States
9. Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) - United States
10. Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) – Australia
11. Belgian Fed­er­a­tion of Jewish Organ­iz­a­tions - Belgium
12. Belgian Friends of Israel (BFOI) - Belgium
13. B’nai B’rith Canada - Canada
14. Britain Israel Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Research Centre (BICOM) - United Kingdom
15. Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) - United Kingdom
16. Center for Inform­a­tion and Doc­u­ment­a­tion Israel (CIDI) - The Neth­er­land
17. Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) - Canada
18. Chris­ti­ans and Jews United for Israel (CJUI) - United States
19. Club Z - United States
20. Coalition for Jewish Values - United States
21. Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) - Worldwide
22. Comunidad Chilena De Israel - Israel
23. Con Israel Y Por La Paz - Argentina
24. Conexión Israel - Latin America
25. Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) - United States
26. Eagles Wings - United States
27. Education Without Indoc­trin­a­tion - United States
28. Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) - United States
29. Europe Israel Public Affairs (EIPA) – Europe
30. European Jewish Asso­ci­ation (EJA) – Europe
31. European Lead­er­ship Network (ELNET) - Europe
32. Feldman Found­a­tion – Cali­for­nia - United States
33. Feldman Found­a­tion – Texas - United States
34. Found­a­tion for Defense of Demo­cra­cies (FDD) - United States
35. Freedom Center - United States
36. Fuel for Truth - United States
37. Fuente Latina - Worldwide
38. God’s Heaven Universal Church - Brazil
39. Hasbara Fel­low­ships - United States
40. Hatzad Hasheni - Latin America
41. Haym Salomon Center - United States
42. Hebraica - Brazil
43. Hochberg Family Found­a­tion - United States
44. Honest Reporting - Worldwide
45. Honestly Concerned - Germany
46. I Like Israel (ILI) - Germany
47. Info­Equit­able - France
48. Institute for Mon­it­or­ing Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE)
49. Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP)
50. Inter­na­tion­al Movement for Peace and Coex­ist­ence - Belgium
51. Ireland Israel Alliance - Ireland
52. Israel Advocacy Movement - United Kingdom
53. Israel Always - United States
54. Israel Britain Alliance - United Kingdom
55. Israel Christian Nexus - United States
56. Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) – United States
57. Israel Sin Fronteras - Ecuador
58. Istituto Milton Friedman - Italy
59. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) - Israel
60. Jewish Community Council of Victoria - Australia
61. Jewish Policy Center - United States
62. Jewish Student Union Germany (JSUD) - Germany
63. Jewish War Veterans of the USA – United States
64. Jews Indi­gen­ous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA) - United States
65. Licra Paris - France
66. Maccabee Task Force (MTF) - United States
67. Maccabi World Union – Worldwide
68. Makkabi Deutsch­land - Germany
69. Med Israel for Fred (MIFF) - Norway, Denmark & Iceland
70. Middle East Forum (MEF) - United States
71. Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin (MFFB) - Germany
72. Michael and Andrea Leven Family Found­a­tion - United States
73. My Truth - Israel
74. Nahost FriendsFor­um e.V. (NAFFO) – Germany
75. National Council of Young Israel - United States
76. National Hispanic Christian Lead­er­ship Con­fer­ence (NHCLC) - United States
77. NC Coalition for Israel - United States
78. New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies – Australia
79. Newton and Rochelle Becker Char­it­able Trust - United States
80. NGO Monitor - Israel
81. North West Friends of Israel - United Kingdom
82. Northern Ireland Friends of Israel - United Kingdom
83. Online Antisemitism Taskforce
84. Online Hate Pre­ven­tion Institute - Australia
85. Organ­isa­tion Juive Européenn - France
86. Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce - United States
87. Osser­vatorio Anti­semit­ismo of the CDEC Found­a­tion – Italy
88. Palestini­an Media Watch (PMW) - Israel
89. Queens­land Jewish Board of Deputies - Australia
90. Raoul Wal­len­berg Centre for Human Rights - Canada
91. Reserv­ists on Duty (ROD) - Israel
92. RI Coalition for Israel - United States
93. Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) - United States
94. Simon Wiesenth­al Center - Worldwide
95. Solomon – osser­vatorio sulle dis­crim­inazioni - Italy
96. Stand­WithUs - Worldwide
97. State Zionist Council of Queens­land – Australia
98. State Zionist Council of Western Australia - Australia
99. org - United States
100. Students Sup­port­ing Israel (SSI) - Worldwide
101. Sussex Friends of Israel – United Kingdom
102. Sweden Israel Alliance (SIA) – Sweden
103. Swedish Zionist Fed­er­a­tion - Sweden
104. The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry - Australia
105. The Gemunder Family Found­a­tion - United States
106. The Inter­na­tion­al Legal Forum (ILF) – Worldwide
107. The Israeli-Jewish Congress (IJC) - Israel
108. ca - United States
109. The Lisa and Michael Leffell Found­a­tion - United States
110. The Lawfare Project - United States
111. The Milstein Family Found­a­tion (MFF) - United States
112. The Philos Project - United States
113. The Pinsker Centre - United Kingdom
114. The Reut Group – Israel
115. Thirty (30) Years After – United States
116. UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) - United Kingdom
117. United Nations Watch
118. United with Israel
119. Wer­teIn­i­ti­at­ive – jüdisch-deutsche Posi­tion­en (Values Ini­ti­at­ive, promoting Jewish-German interests) - Germany
120. World Values Network (WVN) - United States
121. Zachor Legal Institute - United States
122. Zionism Victoria - Australia
123. Zionist Fed­er­a­tion of Australia - Australia
124. Zionist Organ­iz­a­tion of America (ZOA) - United States

Contact

Peter Wertheim AM | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 588
e: [email protected]| www.ecaj.org.au