After repeated use of the hashtag #unbonjuif in France, which literally means “a good jew”, prompted a barrage of anti-Semitic messages on Twitter, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a statement slamming the social networking site, saying it “lags far behind other established social media platforms” in establishing clear standards to block or remove racist, hate-filled tweets and re-tweets.
“When free expression crosses the line into speech that society recognizes as an affront to individuals’ human dignity and as thinly veiled calls for violence, then the service provider has a responsibility to establish acceptable boundaries,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. ”It is time for Twitter to set some boundaries.”
The hashtag led to what the French daily Le Monde termed “a competition of anti-Semitic jokes,” with one user a picture of an emaciated Jewish woman in a Nazi concentration camp as the interpretation of “a good Jew,” while others tweeted that “a good Jew is a dead Jew.”
The “a good jew” incident is just the latest example of people using Twitter hashtags in an effort to target different racial and ethnic groups with hate speech. Nearly two weeks ago, the Nazi swastika symbol briefly trended on Twitter, generating a wave of offensive Holocaust and Nazi jokes.
Read More: @ israelnationalnews.com
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