Just when you thought things couldn't get any more strange.
Rabbi Akiva Pollack was suspended from Facebook when he tried to counter a digital twitter attack on Jews everywhere. Twitter was complacent at best in allowing more than 17,000 tweets praising Hitler. This continues to raise the question of who gets to decide the moral compass for the billions of citizens around the world on social media platforms.
Of course, the recent attacks on Israel were not limited to rockets and stabbings in the Middle East. In fact, the physical war created more fodder for the ensuing digital war that has followed. Digital armies continue to wreak havoc online and now there are those who claim that their efforts are spilling over into the real world in the form of real life hate attacks on Jews throughout the globe.
The ADL reported on May 20, 2021 that twitter was out of control during the weeks that followed the thousands of rockets launched from Gaza into Israel:
"An analysis of Twitter in the days following the recent outbreak of violence showed more than 17,000 tweets which used variations of the phrase, “Hitler was right” between May 7 and May 14, 2021. ADL has also seen an increase in on-the-ground activity that demonizes Israel and that has crossed at times into antisemitism."
In the report they link the recent uptick in hate attacks to the recent war in the Middle East. Although that war only lasted 12 days before a cease fire was reached, it was clearly intended to catalyze supporters of Hamas and Hamas run Gaza from around the globe.
Rabbi Pollack tried to push back against the wave of digital hatred but he says facebook flagged his post and suspended his account. He appealed the decision and he speculated that a real person would read the appeal and decide if to leave it up or take it down. To his dismay his appeal was denied with no explanation at all.
Rabbi Pollack explains, "I disputed it and so someone at Facebook reviewed it and said, 'Nope, your still wrong.'"
He continues, "They never tell you specifically what standard you're violating. Its impossible to know what I can write and what I can not write. What if I write kill all the Jews? Is that okay? Maybe that is within the community standard? You see this all the time and [yet] nothing."
Facebook allowed him to remain on the platform but the post is no longer visible to the public.
Someone has got to replicate this.