‘Antisemitic stereotypes’: Meta to remove more posts attacking ‘Zionists’

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta will start removing more posts that attack “Zionists” when the term is used to represent Jewish people or Israelis more generally.

Meta usually removes posts that attack a person based on a “protected characteristic,” such as their race, nationality or religion, though political affiliation doesn’t fall into that protected class.

While Zionism is a political movement to establish – and now to maintain – a formal Jewish state in the Middle East, the company said that people are also using the term “Zionist” to refer to Jewish or Israeli people more broadly.

“We will remove content attacking ‘Zionists’ when it is not explicitly about the political movement, but instead uses antisemitic stereotypes, or threatens other types of harm through intimidation, or violence directed against Jews or Israelis under the guise of attacking Zionists,” Meta wrote in a blog post.

Meta previously considered the term “Zionist” as a proxy for Jewish people in very narrow or explicit cases, like if Zionists were compared to rats, according to the blog post. This change in policy expands what could be a violation to phrases where “Jew” or “Israeli” are not mentioned.

Use of “Zionists” on Meta’s services was more formally reviewed over the last several months, though the company has considered how best to police the term for the past three years, said Neil Potts, vice president of public policy for Meta.

Potts and colleagues have consulted 145 stakeholders over the past three years, including academics and civil rights experts from around the world, to help decide how to address the term on its platforms. The company has also asked its external Oversight Board to weigh in on “how to treat comparisons between Zionists and criminals (e.g., ‘Zionists are war criminals’).”

Meta acknowledges that policing the new rule could be a challenge. “There is nothing approaching a global consensus on what people mean when they use the term ‘Zionist,’” according to the blog post.