Facebook has removed a meme, shared by the Colorado Jewish Republicans, which stated, “Real Freedom is kick out Islam from this planet.”
In a note to Denver author and musician Dave Flomberg, the giant social media company wrote that the profile of Mark Sanders, who originally spread the offensive meme, was removed because Sanders’ Facebook profile “violated” Facebook’s “community standards.”
“I was especially disgusted that fellow Jews would use a meme that was so reminiscent of the kinds of propaganda that’s been used against us dating back to the blood libel,” Flomberg wrote in explaining why he reported Sanders to Facebook. “This kind of behavior only stokes the fires of hate used to burn so many of our families. Crap like that trades our morality for shitty clicks. We as a people are above debasing
ourselves like this.”
If you visit the Facebook page of the Colorado Jewish Republicans, you’ll see that the meme has been removed.
Facebook did not specify how Sanders violated its community standards, but if you ask me, the meme clearly violates this standard, listed on the Facebook page:
One of Facebook’s Community Standards: We define hate speech as a direct attack on people based on what we call protected characteristics — race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disability or disease. We also provide some protections for immigration status. We define attack as violent or dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, or calls for exclusion or segregation. We separate attacks into three tiers of severity, as described below.
Dan Kopelman, president of the Colorado Jewish Republicans, thinks otherwise, stating earlier this week, “It’s talking about violent Islam,” said Kopelman. “It’s not talking about peaceful Muslims.
Erik Maulbetsch contributed to this post.
