This week, Big Tech giant Facebook added yet another section to its “Community Standards” list of banned speech, which has long since taken on a length and scope of biblical proportions.
The protected classes which received an extra layer of insulation from criticism this week were black people and Jewish people.
Left-wing organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League had been agitating for the increased speech restrictions for several months, going as far as to try to mass boycott Facebook’s advertisers until all speech they disagreed with was purged from the platform.
Facebook’s new section in what it calls the “Tier 1” of “hate speech” bans stereotypes that reference “Jewish people running the world or controlling major institutions such as media networks, the economy or the government.”
The update also bans all depictions of non-black people with dark makeup, classifying cultural depictions of Norwegian Christmas character “Black Pete” as “blackface.”
Predictably, the organizations that pushed so hard for the new restrictions are now criticizing Facebook for not going far enough, perpetuating the goalpost shift that has successfully eliminated almost all spoken forms of opposition to left-wing policy.
Zionist Organization of America head Mort Klein called Facebook’s decision to not fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism – which includes criticism of the state of Israeli and Zionism – a “tragic mistake,” adding, “By not making that step, they’re increasing my fear that people in power are allowing anti-Semitism to go without a strong backlash,
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt Greenblatt said it was “disturbing” that Facebook has not yet classified Holocaust denial as “hate speech” against Jewish people.
Greenblatt also called the sweeping new speech restrictions “minor steps” towards addressing the platform’s “major issues.”
Facebook announces it's explicitly adding blackface and common #antisemitic conspiracy theories to its hate speech policy.
Let's be clear, these are minor steps to address urgent issues on the platform.
There's plenty more work to #StopHateforProfit.https://t.co/aJzNpEJcx8— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) August 12, 2020
Greenblatt also implied that Facebook was in league with QAnon conspiracy theorists because it has not banned enough Facebook groups.
