Posted on 23 July 2020
Twitter has been suspending accounts that prominently display the Star of David in their profiles. Yet the company refuses to remove anti-Semitic material and prominent anti-Semites from its platform.
According to the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a volunteer organization in the United Kingdom, some Twitter users have been suspended for displaying “hateful imagery” in their profile pictures. That hateful imagery was the Star of David.
Twitter told users, “You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header.” The Jerusalem Post stated that some of the images ranged from a Star of David done in a graffiti style to a modern version that looked like the blue Star of David on the Israeli flag.
However, Twitter has not taken down the anti-Semitic material tweeted out by Iran’s Supreme Leader Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei. The Iranian leader had tweeted, “The Zionist regime is a deadly, cancerous growth and a detriment to this region.” In another tweet, Khamenei had tweeted, “The long-lasting virus of Zionism will be uprooted thanks to the determination and faith of the youth.” The leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, is also still on Twitter, even after referring to the Jewish people as “termite[s].”
Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism Stephen Silverman said, “It is deplorable enough that Twitter consistently fails to act against antisemitism on its platform, but now it is taking action against Jews for the simple crime of showing pride in their identity by displaying a Star of David. It never fails to astound just how low Twitter is prepared to go.”
Other anti-Semitic slurs that were allowed to remain on Twitter included the viral hashtag #JewishPrivilege.