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Jewish Internet Defense Force

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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 organization, founded by David Appletree, that seeks to remove material from the Internet which it believes promotes or praises terror and racial hatred, in particular, sites it deems to be antisemitic and anti-Israel in nature. It focuses on Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and Google Earth as well as many other internet sites.

Organization

According to the JIDF, the organization was formed in 2000 in reaction 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, engaging in pro-Israel advocacy. The JIDF also created a Facebook group entitled "FACEBOOK: Why do you aid and abet terrorist organizations?" The organization's web site was created in May 2008 and the first press references to the "Jewish Internet Defense Force" appeared shortly thereafter.

Facebook intervention

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. The JIDF claimed 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 groups down, saying it did not take action 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. According to JIDF's David Appletree, "The terms say that 'one cannot ... make available any content that deem to be harmful, ... hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable.'" Appletree added, Facebook is "negligent in going after these pro-terror and anti-Semitic groups praising Adolf Hitler."

See also

References

  1. "The Jewish Internet Defense Force (mainpage)". JIDF. 2008-08-23. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  2. ^ 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).
  3. Morrison, Sarah (2008-07-27). "Jewish Activists Hack Anti-Semitic Facebook Group". Israel National News. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
  4. ^ Moore, Matthew (2008-07-31). "Facebook: 'Anti-Semitic' group hijacked by Jewish force". London: The Telegraph.
  5. ^ Stephanie Rubenstein (2008-07-30). "Jewish Internet Defense Force 'seizes control' of anti-Israel Facebook group". Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Post.
  6. "WHOIS recordfor "thejidf.org"". DomainTools. August 21, 2008.
  7. ^ Zerbisias, Antonia (May 3, 2007). "Playing Politics on Facebook". Toronto: The Star.
  8. "Help ADL fight the next generation of online extremism". ADL. Retrieved 2008-08-18. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. Tamar Snyder (2008-02-20). "Anti-Semitism 2.0 Going Largely Unchallenged". The Jewish Week.
  10. 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)
  11. Andre Oboler (2008-02-05). "Facing up to the 'Facebook' dilemma". The Jerusalem Post.
  12. 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.

External links

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