JERUSALEM (AP) - Facebook on Tuesday removed a page calling on Palestinians to take up arms against Israel, following a high-profile Israeli appeal to the popular social-networking site.Or do they? As the following info tells:
The affair highlighted how Facebook is increasingly involved in charged political conflicts, balancing between protecting freedom of expression and defending against hate speech.
The page, titled "Third Palestinian Intifada," had more than 350,000 fans when it was taken down. It called on Palestinians to take to the streets after Friday prayers on May 15 and begin an uprising. "Judgment Day will be brought upon us only once the Muslims have killed all of the Jews," a quote from the page read.
Facebook said the page began as a call for peaceful protest, even though it used the term "intifada," which it said has been associated with violence in the past.
"However, after the publicity of the page, more comments deteriorated to direct calls for violence," said Andrew Noyes, Facebook's public policy communications manager. He said the creators of the page eventually made calls for violence as well.
"We monitor pages that are reported to us, and when they degrade to direct calls for violence or expressions of hate - as occurred in this case - we have and will continue to take them down."
Palestinian Authority activists have recreated the Third Intifada page that was banned by Facebook on Tuesday in response to thousands of member requests.If Facebook hasn't removed this new page yet, and more importantly, the offending "activists" behind it, then how do we know they're serious? Facebook's interface discourages me already since it's got very complicated controls, but this news is the real problem.
An Israeli Cabinet minister, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and a massive Internet campaign were only some of the measures used to pressure the popular social networking site into removing the page, which promoted violence against Jews in Israel.
But the story doesn't end there, because angry Palestinian Authority sponsors of the page ensured the fight would continue.
A Muslim page similarly entitled "Subscribe now to the Palestinian Intifada," on its logo but which is innocuously entitled "Make the Prophet Number One on Facebook" on the heading is listed under Non-profit Organizations.
Easily the largest and most popular Muslim page on Facebook, it espouses peace and offers myriad beneficent comments about Allah and Islam's founder, the Prophet Muhammed. But the Rassoul Allaah page also directs readers to directs readers to a wealth of links to other pages promoting the Third Intifada and a massive attempt to carry out the destruction of the State of Israel.
By Wednesday afternoon, the page had garnered more than three million -- 3,293,252 -- votes of support from Facebook members around the world.
Organizers have summoned millions of Arabs from across the Middle East to march into Israel and forcibly attempt to implement a de facto “Right of Return,” the Arab euphenism for the mass immigration of several million Arabs.
The date for this march has been set for May 15 – the anniversary of what the Arabs refer to as the “Nakba” or “Tragedy“ -- the date of the establishment of the State of Israel.
Although some of the pages promoting this campaign have warned its readers to maintain a peaceful demeanor, others do not bother with such niceties.
At least one is a complete re-creation of the original Third Palestinian Intifada page that was removed.
And that's why I don't think I'll ever want a Facebook account, because I can't bring myself to support a social network site that's allowing this kind of monstrous activism to run around.
And of course, there's also this matter here. If they're going to forbid videos detailing horrific murders in the name of jihad, yet allow calls for jihad instead, then what's the use of supporting Facebook?
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