Why Meta's decision on 'Zionists' as a proxy for Jews matters - opinion

Last week, social media conglomerate Meta updated its policies and decided it will now remove speech targeting “Zionists” with dehumanizing comparisons, calls for harm, or denials of existence.

The policy, which will apply to Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, received overwhelming support from the global Jewish community. Over 35 Jewish and Zionist groups have drafted a unique joint statement welcoming Meta’s policy change and urging other social media platforms, like X and others, to follow Meta’s lead to protect Jewish social media users as a minority community.

Meta’s policy change follows significant consultation with relevant global stakeholders. It is a groundbreaking policy change for Meta, which has thus far allowed antisemitism to go largely unchecked based on the belief that the content referring to “Zionists” targeted people due to their political views rather than their ethnicity or religion. The much-needed policy change has reassessed and rejected this position.

Meta’s Previous Policy Regarding Zionist and Israel as Proxies for Jews

Since September 2020, Meta’s hate speech policy has noted the existence of “certain words or phrases as frequently used proxies” to attack protected groups. The use of “Zionist” or “Israel” as proxies to attack Jews was only recognized until now in two very limited circumstances - where Zionism or symbols of Israel are used to refer to Jews to make dehumanizing comparisons and where the content attacks people referred to as “Jews” and “Zionists” in the same post.

The first circumstance of using Zionism or the symbols of Israel to make dehumanizing comparisons between Jews and rats might seem specific, but it goes back to a particular example I included back in 2013 in one of the earliest reports of antisemitism on Facebook which showed a meme in the style of an Israeli flag, but with the star inserted on the body of a rat under the words “the real plague.”

As explained in my report, the rat is not only dehumanizing but mirrors common antisemitic Nazi propaganda. For example, the 1940 Nazi film “The Enteral” features montages of Jews in the ghettoes and rats. My report led to a formal government-mediated complaint lodged by Australia’s peak Jewish community body, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, and was resolved when Facebook committed to removing such content now and into the future.

The second circumstance under which Facebook has a long-standing policy of removing content is when it attacks a group referred to as both Jews and Zionists in the same post because the interchangeable use of words indicated the content was antisemitic and not about a political ideology.

Other content targeting Zionists, however, has remained online, based on the argument that it was attacking people with a particular political view and not attacking them based on their ethnicity or religion. When the attacks have said “Zionist” but used traditional antisemitic narratives, this reasoning has appeared tone-deaf.

Increase in Antisemitism Since October 7

Since Hamas’ October 7 massacres, there has been an increase in antisemitism around the world, which is why it is crucial that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism is adopted by more bodies internationally.

Recent research carried out by the Online Hate Prevention Institute and the Brussels-based Online Hate Task Force on data gathered since October 7 also showed that most online antisemitism referencing Zionism or Israel makes use of traditional antisemitic narratives, including conspiracy theories alleging “they” (Zionists or Israel) control the banks/media/ governments, killed Jesus, use the blood of children in rituals, are demonic, or control world events. With this policy change, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta seems to be committed to recognizing the uses of antisemitic imagery and narratives as hate speech, regardless of whether the content explicitly refers to Jews or the proxy term “Zionists.”

In these trying times for Jews around the world, it is important that Jews and non-Jews alike unite to fight antisemitism and work with relevant stakeholders to ensure that Jews are protected from hatred on social media and in every other arena.  

Dr. Andre Oboler is CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute, an Australia-based NGO dedicated to tackling online hate and extremism. Dr. Oboler is also a member of the Australian Government’s delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

This op-ed is published in partnership with a coalition of organizations that fight antisemitism across the world. Read the previous article by Brandy Shufutinsky.