Facebook gives pass to terror groups while silencing conservative influencers

While social media platforms censor right-wing posters, terror groups continue to post freely, says attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Facebook and other social media platforms are cracking down on right-wing pages, while giving a free pass to terror groups, said attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner on Fox Nation’s Reality Check with David Webb.

Darshan-Leitner of Shurat HaDin, an Israeli nonprofit that advocates for terror victims and seeks to freeze terror funding via international legal cases, spoke out about how Facebook, Twitter and YouTube allow incitement from terror groups on their platforms, while clamping down on right-wing posts.

Twitter recently began flagging President Donald Trump’s tweets with warning labels blocking the content, claiming the tweets violate the platform’s policies against abusive behavior.

“Social media has become an essential tool in the work of a terror organization. They cannot do without it,” said Darshan-Leitner. “We all know Hezbollah’s campaigns to raise funds… are not done on the street, or through a bank, or through email… it’s done through social media.”

“Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, ISIS, Boko Haram, every terror organization is using Facebook, using Twitter, using YouTube.”

Darshan-Leitner explained that the content terror groups post clearly violates the platforms’ terms of service.

Hamas, she said, uses their social media presence to recruit and train potential terrorists. “On Facebook… they put videos illustrating how to kill.. what sort of knife is preferable… where to ambush the Jew… diagram of the human body, where to slaughter the Jew… these are all posts training you how to kill Jews.”

“This isn’t the dark web. What about the speed at which Facebook responds [to these posts], and what about their liability legally?” asked Webb.

Darshan-Leitner said that Prime Minister Netanyahu was concerned about the incitement to terror on Facebook and asked to arrange a meeting between his ministers and the social media giant to discuss the issue.

“Facebook refused,” she said. “They said they are a bulletin board, they are not involved with the content, and they are not taking a side in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”

“But when they want to get involved, they do,” she added.

Shurat HaDin decided to test Facebook’s policy of non-involvement.

“We opened two identical pages on Facebook – one calling to kill Palestinians, and the other calling to kill Israelis. We posted identical posts, with identical images. Facebook immediately took down the page asking to kill Palestinians, saying it violated their community standards.

“But they left up the [kill] Israeli page, even after we reported the page, saying it didn’t violate their community standards.”

In an interview on Israel’s Channel 20 News program The Patriots, Darshan-Leitner said Facebook must take responsibility for the consequences of allowing incitement to terror on its platform.

She announced that Shurat HaDin has filed a lawsuit against Facebook in American federal court on behalf of the families of American victims of terrorist attacks in Israel.

“We want Facebook to take responsibility and change its policies. We want zero tolerance for terror on Facebook’s platform, and on Google and Twitter as well.”

“Imagine ISIS without YouTube – nobody would know who they are.”