5,000 signatures reached
To: Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg, COO and CEO of Facebook
Facebook, We Need to Talk.
If Facebook does move to restrict use of the word Zionist, this would block important community conversations on the world’s largest social media platform; restrict valid, Constitutionally protected political speech; and deprive Palestinians of a critical venue for expressing their political viewpoints to the world.
Social media is increasingly a space for people to share and document their experiences with state violence and repression, upending previous power imbalances, government censorship and state-controlled media. This has been a game-changer for global social movements for justice, including the growing movement in support of Palestinian human rights.
Facebook should allow us to hold governments accountable — not shield governments from accountability. That means Facebook should make sure we can discuss, debate, and even disagree about political ideologies like Zionism, about government policies and actions and accountability, and about our lives and families — as part of our commitment to safety for Palestinian people and Jewish people wherever they are in the world.
The "Facebook We Need to Talk" campaign is being organized by over 40 social justice organizations in the US and around the world, including MPower Change, Media Justice, 7amleh, Jewish Voice for Peace, Adalah Justice Project, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, American Muslims for Palestine, Friends of Sabeel North America, BDS Movement, Eyewitness Palestine, and Palestine Legal. For a full list of partners, see the campaign website.
Why is this important?
In a world full of walls, social media is a powerful tool to help us share our stories and support one another and our common humanity — no matter our religion, race or nationality. We know Facebook is considering its responsibility to implement guardrails to keep the platform safe and accessible for us to connect across space and difference.
But we are deeply concerned about Facebook's proposed revision of its hate speech policy to consider "Zionist" as a proxy for "Jew" or "Jewish." The proposed policy would too easily mischaracterize conversations about Zionists — and by extension, Zionism — as inherently antisemitic, harming Facebook users and undermining efforts to dismantle real antisemitism and all forms of racism, extremism and oppression. We cannot dismantle antisemitism if we are blocked from voicing our opinions and sharing our experiences with each other. We can discuss, debate and even disagree, as long as we share the belief that all of us deserve safety, freedom, and dignity. We ask Facebook to not erect barriers impeding users from connecting with each other as we engage in this work.
This is the wrong solution to a real and important problem: those who fuel antisemitism online will continue doing so, with or without the word “Zionist.” In fact, many antisemites, especially among white supremacists and evangelical Christian Zionists, explicitly support Zionism and Israel, while engaging in speech and actions that dehumanize, insult, and isolate Jewish people. Importantly, this move will prohibit Palestinians from sharing their daily experiences and histories with the world, be it a photo of the keys to their grandparent’s house lost when attacked by Zionist militias in 1948, or a livestream of Zionist settlers attacking their olive trees in 2021. And it would prevent Jewish users from discussing their relationships to Zionist political ideology.
Facebook scrutinizing specific words won’t keep any of us safe, but it will prevent us from connecting on the political issues important to all of us and block us from holding people and governments accountable for their policies and actions. The current Israeli government, and some of its supporters, have demanded that Facebook add “Zionist” to its hate speech policy. This would shut down conversations about accountability for policies and actions that harm Palestinians. Facebook should refuse to cooperate with those who seek to build more walls to keep us apart. We call on Facebook to not add “Zionist” as a protected category in its hate speech policy.
How it will be delivered
We will be hosting a virtual petition delivery with music, poetry, and activist speakers to delivery the petition virtually and by fax!