Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Twitter Bans Star Of David Images As 'Hateful Imagery'

Twitter bans Star of David images as 'hateful'




Twitter is locking the accounts of users who display the Star of David in their profile image or header, deeming it "hateful imagery."
The London-based nonprofit Campaign Against Antisemitism said several Twitter users have contacted them recently to report that their accounts had been locked because various images of the Star of David violated the social media platform's "rules against posting hateful imagery," the Jerusalem Post reported.
"You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. As a result, we have locked your account," Twitter wrote to the users.
The Post reported the offending images "ranged from a white Star of David in a graffiti style, to a superimposition of the modern blue star on the flag of Israel spliced with the yellow star Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis, to a montage of yellow stars."
Stephen Silverman, director of investigations and enforcement for the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said social media companies often claim "that they lack the resources to tackle hate on their platforms, but Twitter has put the lie to that claim by demonstrating that it does have the resources, but chooses to target the benign symbol of a victimized minority instead of the countless racists who use its platform with impunity."
"Twitter must immediately restore these accounts, apologize to the owners, and pledge finally to take robust action against the antisemites whom it has enabled for so long," he said.

The Post said that just last week, Twitter was accused of inciting anti-Jewish hatred for allowing the hashtag #JewishPrivilege to trend.


The tag was used to promote anti-Semitic messages such as, "#JewishPrivilege is being born into a world where your ancestors have ‘progressive-ly’ transformed an entire civilization into a Jewish ‘utopia’ by inverting its formerly Christian values into their exact opposites."


Silverman said it's "deplorable enough that Twitter consistently fails to act against antisemitism on its platform, but now it is taking action against Jews for the simple crime of showing pride in their identity by displaying a Star of David."







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