Have been checking out the efforts of the JIDF to squash the “Kill A Jew” day events that have been popping up on Facebook.
There was one a few days ago that the organization was successful in getting taken down. Another one popped up two days later to take its place. It looks like it’s the same people trying to get a rise but the general bottom line is the same. In addition to all the great content and information on Facebook, there is a lot of antisemitism and hate speech against ethnic, religious and gender orientation minorities. Facebook does what it can to keep it in check when made aware of the problem within the inherent flaws of user-based self-reporting systems. There however, is simply so much more of the hatred than there are employees at Facebook to monitor it.
I try to take most of this crap in stride as there are idiots everywhere. The most troubling aspect of “the day” is not that some anti-Semitic idiot would put it up but that so many are willing to play along and incite the hatred in the page commentary. Strong evidence that it is much more than a silly page put up by a moron. It is a stark reminder that Facebook is not just a place for friends to connect and share information. It is a venue for those of like mind in hatred of not only Jews but any minority group to take that message, find those who agree and take hatred viral.
I wonder if they will talk about that in the new Facebook movie, The Social Network. I doubt it. People are more interested In Mark Zuckerberg’s quirks and dalliances than they are about real issues affecting all of us in that network. That’s to be expected. People want to be entertained. I hope it’s more entertaining than Kill A Jew Day.
4 Responses
Thanks for the mention, Brian. Agreed, this is not entertaining.
Please note the latest ACTION ALERT, to report the new page here:
http://www.thejidf.org/2010/07/action-alert-repor…
All kinds of feelings come up when I hear that there was such a posting in 2010 on Facebook if we can find Russian spies who have here for years to do who knows. I can not believe in 2010 that something cannot be written in the software to have warnings when someone posts ungly things like Kill a Jew?
I think the most important thing to take away from this is that Jews cannot ever forget that there are quite a few people out there in the world that not only would not mind seeing us gone, but really would enjoy eradicating us. Many of us live in a society where religion is not worn on our sleeve. Facebook has unpleasantly reminded us that we are not always wanted.
Hopefully the groups are taken down one-by-one. But again, we cannot close our eyes to the fact that there is a lot of hatred for Jews all around the world.
I think the most important thing to take away from this is that Jews cannot ever forget that there are quite a few people out there in the world that not only would not mind seeing us gone, but really would enjoy eradicating us.