Meta to remove more posts attacking ‘Zionists’; NYU, students settle lawsuit over anti-Semitism

New York University reached a settlement with three Jewish students who claimed in a lawsuit that the school failed to protect them from “egregious” anti-Semitism that worsened after the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The parties agreed to a confidential settlement, including monetary terms, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement.

Meta expands policy to remove more posts attacking ‘Zionists’

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms will start removing more posts that attack “Zionists” when the term is used to represent Jewish people or Israelis more generally.

Meta usually removes posts that attack a person based on a “protected characteristic,” such as their race, nationality or religion, though political affiliation doesn’t fall into that protected class. While Zionism is considered by many to be a political movement to establish a formal Jewish state in the Middle East, the company said that people were also using the term “Zionist” to refer to Jewish or Israeli people more broadly.

“We will remove content attacking ‘Zionists’ when it is not explicitly about the political movement, but instead uses anti-Semitic stereotypes, or threatens other types of harm through intimidation, or violence directed against Jews or Israelis under the guise of attacking Zionists,” Meta wrote on Tuesday in a blog post.

Meta previously considered the term “Zionist” as a proxy for Jewish people in very narrow or explicit cases, like if Zionists were compared to rats, according to the blog post. This policy change expands what could be a violation to phrases where “Jew” or “Israeli” are not mentioned.

The use of “Zionists” on Meta’s services was more formally reviewed over the past several months, though the company has considered how best to police the term for the past three years, said Neil Potts, vice-president of public policy for Meta.

Potts and colleagues have consulted 145 “stakeholders” over the past three years, including academics and civil rights experts from around the world, to help decide how to address the term on its platforms. The company has also asked its external Oversight Board to weigh in on “how to treat comparisons between Zionists and criminals (eg, ‘Zionists are war criminals’).”

Meta acknowledges that policing the new rule could be a challenge. “There is nothing approaching a global consensus on what people mean when they use the term ‘Zionist,’ ” according to the blog post. But Meta will remove posts when the term is calling for physical harm, dehumanising Zionists by comparing them to animals or “filth”, or suggesting Zionists are “running the world or controlling the media.”

The expanded policy comes nine months after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, killing more than a thousand people and taking several hundred others hostage. The two sides are still at war, and Meta has made several policy changes in that time to cut down on posts showing violence from the attack or praising support for Hamas, which the US and European Union classify as a terrorist organisation.

NYU, students settle lawsuit over ‘egregious’ anti-Semitism

New York University reached a settlement with three Jewish students who claimed in a lawsuit that the school failed to protect them from “egregious” anti-Semitism that worsened after the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

No details of the accord were provided in a message on Monday from a spokesperson for the Manhattan federal court’s district executive, who said a status conference in the case scheduled for Tuesday was cancelled.

The parties agreed to a confidential settlement, including monetary terms, NYU spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement.

“None of the confidential terms detracts from NYU’s obligations to combat anti-Semitism under the agreement,” said Beckman.

The NYU students sued in November amid searing criticism of college administrators at multiple East Coast schools. The suit alleged that attacks on Jewish students escalated since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October. Many students and the faculty had since “openly and enthusiastically” endorsed Hamas, according to the complaint.

As a result of the settlement, NYU is instigating a series of changes. They include updating the discussion of anti-Semitism in a Guidance and Expectations for Student Conduct document, including it as a topic in training that’s mandatory for NYU students and staff, and dedicating more academic resources to the area, such as a focus on the study of anti-Semitism and Hebrew and Judaic studies. The school will also strengthen its existing relationship with Tel Aviv University in Israel.

The explosion of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on US college campuses late last year prompted a vow from President Joe Biden’s administration to use the law in the face of campus threats and violence.

The US Education Department announced resources aimed at ensuring schools and college campuses had the tools they needed to protect students from discrimination and harassment because of their race, colour or national origin, including students who were or were perceived to be Jewish, Muslim, Israeli, Arab or Palestinian. The department’s civil rights office also opened multiple investigations into individual schools. DM

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