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Revision as of 19:11, 4 December 2008 view sourceSaltonsea (talk | contribs)17 edits Undid revision 255889129 by Hans Adler (talk) not controversial. no COI. final quote from non-entity is absurd. link helps 2← Previous edit Revision as of 19:56, 4 December 2008 view source Dronkle (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers12,793 edits Undid revision 255890024 by Saltonsea (talk)Linking to an attack page is inappropriate. Other material sourced from a WP:RSNext edit →
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== Elsewhere on the Web == == Elsewhere on the Web ==


According to '']'', "apart from its ] operations, which the JIDF calls only a small percentage of its activities, the group publishes online 'guides' detailing how users can identify sites that promote hateful content. JIDF members also edit content on ] entries and monitor ] and ]. JIDF's measures include reporting Misplaced Pages editors it claims are anti-Israel, and taking action against entries seen as including one-sided or false accounts of the history of Israel and the Mideast conflict.<ref name="JIDF Guide to Misplaced Pages">{{cite blog According to '']'', "apart from its ] operations, which the JIDF calls only a small percentage of its activities, the group publishes online 'guides' detailing how users can identify sites that promote hateful content. JIDF members also edit content on ] entries and monitor ] and ]. JIDF's measures include reporting Misplaced Pages editors it claims are anti-Israel, and taking action against entries seen as including one-sided or false accounts of the history of Israel and the Mideast conflict. On ], it has taken steps to remove photos showing Palestinian villages listed as having been destroyed during the foundation of the State of Israel. It has also waged a campaign against the listing of Palestine as a country."<ref name=Hartman/>
|title=JIDF Guide to Misplaced Pages
|url=http://www.thejidf.org/2008/10/list-of-heavily-biased-anti-israel.html
|publisher=
|date=2008-10-04}}</ref> On ], it has taken steps to remove photos showing Palestinian villages listed as having been destroyed during the foundation of the State of Israel. It has also waged a campaign against the listing of Palestine as a country."<ref name=Hartman/>


==Criticisms== ==Criticisms==
In October 2008, the German newspaper the ''] (FAZ)'' published an article on "Antisemitism 2.0" and the JIDF featuring material from an email interview with the JIDF's spokesman "David". Most of the article contains similar material to that found in other articles on the subjects. However, the final section entitled "From fighters against online-hatred to ]" contains some criticism of the JIDF. ''FAZ'' notes that the JIDF "follows an open political agenda" and that many of its members protested again ] and regard the policy of "]" to be mistaken. Further, the article calls the JIDF "self-appointed warriors against online-hatred"<ref>'die selbsternannten Kämpfer gegen Online-Hass'</ref> yet notes they link to "a dubious site" which "draws a picture of Islam as a religion of hatred". The article goes on to describe the linked site's polemic against ] and ]. ''FAZ'' also notes that "David" himself called a Saudi Arabian user who was bragging about devoting a group to the murderer of the Yeshiva-students a "terrorist-celebrating, disgusting pig!". <ref>. Quotes are taken from the authorised English translation, published at Zionism On The Web, seen 22 November 2008</ref> In October 2008, the German newspaper the ''] (FAZ)'' published an article on "Antisemitism 2.0" and the JIDF featuring material from an email interview with the JIDF's spokesman "David". Most of the article contains similar material to that found in other articles on the subjects. However, the final section entitled "From fighters against online-hatred to ]" contains some criticism of the JIDF. ''FAZ'' notes that the JIDF "follows an open political agenda" and that many of its members protested again ] and regard the policy of "]" to be mistaken. Further, the article calls the JIDF "self-appointed warriors against online-hatred"<ref>'die selbsternannten Kämpfer gegen Online-Hass'</ref> yet notes they link to "a dubious site" which "draws a picture of Islam as a religion of hatred". The article goes on to describe the linked site's polemic against ] and ]. ''FAZ'' also notes that "David" himself called a Saudi Arabian user who was bragging about devoting a group to the murderer of the Yeshiva-students a "terrorist-celebrating, disgusting pig!". <ref>. Quotes are taken from the authorised English translation, published at Zionism On The Web, seen 22 November 2008</ref>


Little other criticism of the JIDF has been published in the mainstream press. However, '']'' has reported an Internet campaign against the JIDF "accusing it of being a ] proxy."<ref name=Hartman/> ''Haaretz'' notes that Facebook groups with the same names and similar content to deleted groups have appeared, albeit with substantially reduced membership from the originals.<ref name=Hartman/> Little other criticism of the JIDF has been published in the mainstream press. However, '']'' has reported an Internet campaign against the JIDF "accusing it of being a ] proxy."<ref name=Hartman/> ''Haaretz'' notes that Facebook groups with the same names and similar content to deleted groups have appeared, albeit with substantially reduced membership from the originals. One of the people who campaigned for Facebook to allow the relaunch of the "Israel is not a country" group told ''Haaretz'' that their success was "the first victory against the JIDF."<ref name=Hartman/>


==See also== ==See also==

Revision as of 19:56, 4 December 2008

The Jewish Internet
Defense Force (JIDF)
File:Jidf logo.jpg
Type of siteOnline activism, Israel advocacy
URLwww.TheJIDF.org

The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) is an online organization that seeks to remove material from the Internet which its members believe promotes or praises Islamic terrorism and racial hatred, in particular, sites they deem to be antisemitic and anti-Israel in nature. The group has focused its attention on websites like Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Google Earth, and Misplaced Pages.

Organization

According to the JIDF, the organization "formed as a grassroots effort in 2000, mainly to mount mass e-mail campaigns, in response to the outbreak of the Second Intifada, a Palestinian uprising which began in September of that year. It then began operating on various Web sites, including Facebook, to spread news about Israel and Jewish issues." The JIDF also "created a Facebook group entitled "FACEBOOK: Why do you aid and abet terrorist organizations?", reportedly in response to groups on Facebook "praising the murderer of the eight yeshiva boys" in the Mercaz HaRav massacre. The organization's web site was created in May 2008 and the first press references to the "Jewish Internet Defense Force" appeared shortly thereafter. The JIDF encourages e-mail campaigns to the media to inform them about the issues they find online, and to site administrators of social networking websites to inform them about content which the JIDF deems to be objectionable and contrary to the providers acceptable use policies.

Facebook interventions

During 2007, a controversy on Facebook was reported involving the removal of the Palestine option from "the drop-down list of places members can use to show where they live." Several Facebook groups formed to support or oppose this removal including "'Palestine' Is not a country ... Delist it from Facebook as a country!" and "Israel is not a country! Delist it from Facebook as a country". Matt Hicks of Facebook responded by saying: "As long as the groups meet our terms of use, they can stay up. But we encourage users to report anything that is racist or objectionable." Content found in the Israel is not a country! Delist it from Facebook as a country group was described as antisemitic by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), The Jewish Week, and Andre Oboler, a social media researcher. According to the JIDF, the group "actively promoted hatred, violence, murder and genocide."

Despite what the JIDF described as "thousands of user complaints over the course of eighteen months", Facebook declined to shut the group down, saying it did not take action against what it described as "legitimate political discourse". The "Israel is not a country" group continued to grow, and in July 2008 JIDF "seize control" of it. Since the JIDF intervention, the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism (CFCA) has highlighted the issue by including a Telegraph article on the topic in its archive.

In September 2008, the JIDF told the Canadian Jewish News that it had taken over several more Facebook groups, including "an Arabic-language Facebook group which set a goal of finding one million people who hate Israel within 90 days."

According to a November 2008 article in Haaretz, the JIDF "began making lists of Facebook groups posting material such as praise for attacks on Israeli civilians and content the JIDF viewed as anti-Semitic. JIDF then forwarded the lists to Facebook administrators. In some cases, the JIDF complaints prodded Facebook to take action. For the most part, however, Facebook's response was less clear-cut, according to David, a leading JIDF member who asked that his last name to be withheld, citing repeated death threats he and other group members have received by email since their actions became public. He says Facebook either did nothing or took months to police or remove groups the JIDF reported, allowing the material to circulate online in the meantime. When efforts to lobby Facebook to remove the groups failed, the JIDF escalated, moving to intercept Facebook groups and make them impossible to access. The turning point, David said, came with the founding of a range of Facebook groups praising the terrorist who killed eight students in a shooting attack at Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in March.

"The use of Facebook to blatantly praise acts of terrorism demanded an equally blatant response," David says. Many of these groups, including "R.I.P. ALA'A ABU DHAIM," founded in honor of the Mercaz Harav terrorist, have been targeted or removed by the JIDF. Many others remain, however, due mainly to the ease with which Facebook users can set up groups and the speed with which they attract new members."

According to Haaretz, "a link on the JIDF site shows a screenshot from an Arabic-language group on Facebook that JIDF says was promoting Hezbollah propaganda and had attracted more than 118,000 members on Facebook before the JIDF began a wholesale deletion of the group's members, eventually deleting 109,873 members, leaving the group with less than 10,000." Haaretz also reported that the JIDF says it has removed more than 100 of what it calls anti-Semitic groups that promote genocide and anti-Israel propaganda on the Web, including those for Hamas fans and Holocaust deniers and a Facebook group called "We Will Kill All Israelis Abroad".

The Canadian Jewish News reported in September 2008 that the JIDF took over another Facebook group, "Eliminate Israel from Being", and deleted more than 5,000 members before Facebook management "returned control of the site to its administrators." According to the JIDF, some users on Facebook "spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, demonize Zionists, praise attacks on Israeli or Jewish civilians, promote violence, hatred and Islamic jihadist propaganda, recruit people to Islamic terrorist organizations and supports white supremacy and Nazi groups."

Elsewhere on the Web

According to Haaretz, "apart from its Facebook operations, which the JIDF calls only a small percentage of its activities, the group publishes online 'guides' detailing how users can identify sites that promote hateful content. JIDF members also edit content on Misplaced Pages entries and monitor YouTube and Google Earth. JIDF's measures include reporting Misplaced Pages editors it claims are anti-Israel, and taking action against entries seen as including one-sided or false accounts of the history of Israel and the Mideast conflict. On Google Earth, it has taken steps to remove photos showing Palestinian villages listed as having been destroyed during the foundation of the State of Israel. It has also waged a campaign against the listing of Palestine as a country."

Criticisms

In October 2008, the German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) published an article on "Antisemitism 2.0" and the JIDF featuring material from an email interview with the JIDF's spokesman "David". Most of the article contains similar material to that found in other articles on the subjects. However, the final section entitled "From fighters against online-hatred to anti-Islamism" contains some criticism of the JIDF. FAZ notes that the JIDF "follows an open political agenda" and that many of its members protested again Israel's unilateral disengagement plan and regard the policy of "land for peace" to be mistaken. Further, the article calls the JIDF "self-appointed warriors against online-hatred" yet notes they link to "a dubious site" which "draws a picture of Islam as a religion of hatred". The article goes on to describe the linked site's polemic against Islam and Muhammad. FAZ also notes that "David" himself called a Saudi Arabian user who was bragging about devoting a group to the murderer of the Yeshiva-students a "terrorist-celebrating, disgusting pig!".

Little other criticism of the JIDF has been published in the mainstream press. However, Haaretz has reported an Internet campaign against the JIDF "accusing it of being a Mossad proxy." Haaretz notes that Facebook groups with the same names and similar content to deleted groups have appeared, albeit with substantially reduced membership from the originals. One of the people who campaigned for Facebook to allow the relaunch of the "Israel is not a country" group told Haaretz that their success was "the first victory against the JIDF."

See also

References

  1. "The Jewish Internet Defense Force (mainpage)". JIDF. 2008-08-23. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  2. "JIDF Response to Misplaced Pages". 2008-08-05.
  3. ^ Morrison, Sarah (2008-03-04). "Jewish Activist Battles For Israel on Facebook". Israel National News. Retrieved 2008-08-23. Cite error: The named reference "Jewish Activist Battl" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. Morrison, Sarah (2008-07-27). "Jewish Activists Hack Anti-Semitic Facebook Group". Israel National News. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  5. ^ Stephanie Rubenstein (2008-07-30). "Jewish Internet Defense Force 'seizes control' of anti-Israel Facebook group". Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Post. Cite error: The named reference "jpost1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ Moore, Matthew (2008-07-31). "Facebook: 'Anti-Semitic' group hijacked by Jewish force". London: The Telegraph.
  7. FACEBOOK: Why do you aid and abet terrorist organizations?
  8. "WHOIS recordfor "thejidf.org"". DomainTools. August 21, 2008.
  9. "Sample E-mail Activism Letter". 2008-05-20.
  10. ^ Zerbisias, Antonia (2007-05-03). "Playing Politics on Facebook". Toronto: The Star.
  11. "Help ADL fight the next generation of online extremism". ADL. Retrieved 2008-08-18. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. Tamar Snyder (2008-02-20). "Anti-Semitism 2.0 Going Largely Unchallenged". The Jewish Week.
  13. Andre Oboler (2008-04-01). "Online Antisemitism 2.0. "Social Antisemitism" on the "Social Web"". Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Retrieved 2008-08-14. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. Andre Oboler (2008-02-05). "Facing up to the 'Facebook' dilemma". The Jerusalem Post.
  15. Tamar Snyder (2008-05-14). "Latest Front In Mideast Wars: Misplaced Pages: Pro-Israel advocates have been banned from contributing articles on the popular encyclopedia, but battle rages". The Jewish Week.
  16. "Israel - Facebook: 'Anti-Semitic' group hijacked by Jewish force"". CFCA Archives. Retrieved 2008-08-18. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  17. ^ Lungen, Paul (2008-09-25). "Anti-Israel Facebook groups infiltrated". Canadian Jewish News. Retrieved 2008-09-25.
  18. ^ Benjamin Hartman (2008-11-14). "An online battle for Israel's legitimacy". Haaretz.
  19. 'die selbsternannten Kämpfer gegen Online-Hass'
  20. Christoph Gunkel, Antisemitismus im Web 2, Frankfurter Allgemeine FAZ.NET 14. Oktober 2008. Quotes are taken from the authorised English translation, Facebook and Google Earth: Anti-Semitism in Web 2.0 published at Zionism On The Web, seen 22 November 2008


External links

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