Join Linda Sarsour, Marc Lamont Hill, Cornel West and over 15,000 supporters to tell Facebook NOT to censor our critiques of Zionism!
Yesterday, we launched a campaign with 23 partner organizations to tell Facebook NOT to add “Zionist” as a protected category in its hate speech policy. Our petition addressed to Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg has reached over 15,000 signatures from academics, activists, opinion and community leaders, and justice supporters in its first 24 hours. We need YOU and your friends to help us reach our 25,000 goal by signing the petition today .
This attempt to stifle discussion of Zionism is an initiative by the Israeli government and Facebook can and should reject it. Right now, the Israeli government and anti-Palestinian organizations are demanding that Facebook’s artificial intelligence systems monitor and ban critical usages of the word “Zionist,” and falsely claiming that would protect us from antisemitism.
Zionism as a political ideology is not synonymous with antisemitism. It’s synonymous with the governing ideology of the State of Israel and its policies against the Palestinian people. Thus, as a political ideology, it doesn’t enjoy any sort of immunity from discussion and debate.
The Israeli government is hoping that by banning the word “Zionist,” it can shut down online conversations about its brutal policies and human rights violations against our people. Social media companies should allow people to hold governments accountable to us – not shield governments from accountability.
If we don’t act NOW, we won’t be able to share our experiences as Palestinians about daily life under military occupation and the violence of Zionist settlers.
Join us in urging Facebook NOT to shut down our important conversations. Sign and share the petition here: facebookweneedtotalk.org/petition
Sincerely,