The StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department was pleased to receive an encouraging response from Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, to a detailed letter we sent the Facebook Board of Directors stating ways for them to toughen their policy against Antisemitism on Facebook.
This week we joined dozens of partner organizations in a campaign initiated by the Gila and Adam Milstein Foundation to ensure that the international standard definition of Antisemitism – known as the IHRA (International Holocaust Memorial Alliance) definition – forms the core of their policy to define and remove antisemitic content from the social media platform.
Sheryl Sandberg assured all the organizations that were part of this campaign, that “the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism has been invaluable – both in informing our own approach and as a point of entry for candid policy discussions with organizations like yours. In some respects, our Community Standards go even further than the IHRA definition – for example, expressions of dismissal.” Facebook also responded to the campaign with a letter from Monika Bickert, Facebook VP Content Policy, which you may read here.
Antisemitism is hate speech and words lead to nefarious deeds. Even in the recent past, we have seen the deadly results of Antisemitism.
We are grateful to the Milstein foundation for launching this campaign. We will continue to monitor this issue and the steps taken. We welcome this initial response from Facebook as a step in the right direction. We will make our executive personnel and the StandWithUs Center for Combatting Antisemitism staff and resources available to work with Facebook and ensure that there is no place for antisemitic or racist hate on their platform.
About StandWithUs
StandWithUs (SWU) is an international, non-profit and non-partisan Israel education organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism.
Through university fellowships, high school internships, middle school curricula, conferences, materials, social media, educational films and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to educate their schools and communities about Israel.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and programs on 5 continents, including the U.S., Israel, UK, Canada, South Africa and Brazil.
For the last 7 years, SWU has consistently received the highest possible ratings from Charity Navigator (4 stars) and Guidestar (Platinum).
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