Facebook to Be Sued for ‘Promoting Terror’

By C Barnett --
20 Oct 2015 --

Israel Law Center files a class action suit against the Facebook over anti-Semitic terror posts.

Alarmed by the increase in the hate-filled content against Jews on Facebook, Shurat HaDin – the Israel Law Center, a Tel Aviv-based organization, is gearing up for a class action lawsuit against the social networking giant in an U.S. Court of Law. However, they say, it goes beyond anti-Semitism, with the promotion of terrorism and related activities being the backbone of their argument. There are many posts, numbering in the thousands, which glorify terrorist attacks, offer instructions such as how to execute a terrorist attack, and support those who actually do so.

Facebook to Be Sued for ‘Promoting Terror'[/tweetthis]

This wouldn't be the first time Shurat HaDin tested the waters, as it has a successful track record of standing up for Jewish rights and against terrorism. Only last February did it win a $218.5 million suit against the PLO or Palestinian Liberation Organization, an umbrella body that espouses the cause of Palestinians; and another among its successful victories include $323 million from Syria for the death of American teenager Daniel Wultz, who was killed during a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Suing Facebook – Disconnecting TerrorSign up here now: http://disconnectterror.org/en We need you, in full…
Posted by Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center on Thursday, October 15, 2015

Commenting on the issue, Emmanuel Nahshon of Israel's Foreign Ministry says the government is working with YouTube and Facebook for taking down such content. He says that in the world of social media, it takes time as has be reported first as hate speech by an user before it can be reviewed and taken down. And even then, as soon as one has been removed, others pop up in its place, making it a Hydra-like situation.

Israeli nonprofit to sue Facebook as 'accessory to terror': NEW YORK CITY (Christian Examiner)—An Israeli advo… http://t.co/BcEee79I9N
— joohnnyf (@joohnnyff) October 16, 2015

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the founder of Shurat HaDin and named by Forbes as one of the 50 most influential women in Israel, is not so sure. She points out that Facebook already has heuristics that determine what a user's personal preferences such as food, clothing and music are, and so it wouldn't be too difficult for the Palo Alto-headquartered $245 billion-dollar company to put in algorithms that prevent posting of hate-filled content.

She cites several examples in support of her point that terrorists are neither born nor made, they are inspired. What was once being propagated through mosques, schools and speeches is now being delivered to a wider audience through social media.

As she prepares to take her case before a San Francisco judge, she says that what remains to be seen is whether the freedom of speech would prevail over the right to life.