Community Organisations Tackling Hate Incidents and Hate Crimes Come Together in France

Three French anti-racism associations said on Sunday they would file legal complaints against social networks Facebook, Twitter and Google’s Youtube for failing to remove “hateful” content posted on their platforms.

French law requires websites to take down racist, homophobic or anti-semitic material and tell authorities about it.

But French Jewish students union UEJF and anti-racism and anti-homophobia campaigners SOS Racisme and SOS Homophobie said the three firms had removed only a fraction of 586 examples of hateful content the anti-racism groups had counted on their platforms between the end of March and May 10.

Twitter removed only four percent, Youtube seven percent and Facebook 34 percent, according to the associations.

“In light of Youtube, Twitter and Facebook’s profits and how little taxes they pay, their refusal to invest in the fight against hate is unacceptable,” UEJF president Sacha Reingewirtz said in a statement.

Germany got Facebook, Google and Twitter to agree in December to delete hate speech from their websites within 24 hours.

The post Facebook, Twitter, Youtube face hate speech complaints in France appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Much has been said about social media platforms though we have seen some significant and positive changes in Twitter and Facebook over the last year.

We have seen a real desire to reach out and to listen to organisations working with communities and in areas such as tackling hate incidents and crimes. Both organisations are making changes and supporting counter-speech and this is to be welcomed. Interestingly, changes are taking place on these platforms much more regularly and which take into account feedback by users.

For example, today, we have learnt that Twitter provides this much needed reporting in facility. The facility allows users to report in multiple tweets, thereby providing greater context on the information and actions of perpetrators of abuse. The greater the context, the more information that can be acted on.

Tell MAMA has been working with Twitter in trying to ensure that the context of hateful and abusive messages are taken into account. We are one of a handful of organisations who have made this case and we are very grateful that Twitter has listened and responded. We are starting to see a strong desire from Facebook and Twitter to make relevant and useful changes to tackle abuse and these steps are warmly welcomed. They will help victims of abuse.

The post Twitter Develops Multiple Reporting of Tweets to Provide Context appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The case of George Zimmerman and the killing of Trayvon Martin captivated and split America down the lines of race and a gun-culture which is seen as a ‘right’ in some states in the US. In 2013, Zimmerman was acquitted of a second degree murder charge in Florida which further led to disbelief in some sections of the African-American population in the US. That killing involved the death of young Trayvon Martin.

In September 2015, Zimmerman went onto retweet a tweet showing the lifeless body of Trayvon Martin to his 10,000 Twitter followers at the time, leading to some commenting on his actions via the following statement:

“You’re a disgusting human being. I know I shouldn’t ever say that, but look at you. All proud for killing a kid.”

This evening, Zimmerman posted the following tweet – shown below, allegedly about an ex-girlfriend and the tweet included her US contact number. Given the nature of the tweet, we reported it into Twitter and humiliating and debasing an ex-partner in this manner is contemptuous. This is what the bigoted Zimmerman said:

“This is Heather. She cheated on me with a dirty Muslim…….she will sleep with anyone.”

They say that a single tweet does not reflect the inner thoughts of a person. In this case, we beg to differ, given the clarity of the contempt for Muslims and Zimmerman’s support for the Florida ‘anti-Muslim zone’ gun shop owner.

If anything, Zimmerman has shown the world what he really believes in; anti-Muslim rhetoric, humiliating women on-line and showing disrespect for the memory of Trayvon Martin. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the ‘Real George Zimmerman.’

.@TherealGeorgeZ George Zimmerman encourages followers to harass/sexually assault ex-girlfriend. @twitter @Support pic.twitter.com/Ae2Gidc4BW

— D (@Delo_Taylor) December 3, 2015

The post George Zimmerman Moves onto Anti-Muslim Bigotry & Shaming of Ex-Partner appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Earlier today we highlighted the sad death of Mushin Ahmed, a senior citizen, who passed away from his injuries after going to the mosque for Fajr prayers. Clearly a devout man, who would have thought his family would now be mourning his death.

We received the following tweet, shown above, from an account that stated,

“One less Muslim.”

This is the appalling, stomach churning response we have received from Twitter, the profit making social media company whose actions on tackling anti-Muslim hate leave a lot to be desired. At the heart of this response lies the problem. This response seems to show some automation or a severe lack of common sense by the individual working on this complaint. This is another epic Twitter fail!

Twitter’s response to the hate speech:

“Hello,

Thank you for your report. Twitter takes reports of this nature very seriously.

We reviewed the content and determined that it was not in violation of the Twitter Rules (https://twitter.com/rules). We are happy to revisit this decision if you are able to provide further evidence of a violation. Please respond to this email with direct links to the content in question.

We understand you might come across content on Twitter that you find offensive. Twitter users are free to post content (even if potentially inflammatory) provided that they don’t violate the Terms of Service (https://twitter.com/tos) or the Twitter Rules (https://twitter.com/rules). If you would like more information on how to control your Twitter experience, see this help article: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170134

If you feel threatened or are in danger, please contact your local law enforcement. You can direct the local law enforcement to our Guidelines for Law Enforcement here: https://support.twitter.com/articles/41949“

The post Twitter’s Abysmal Record Demonstrated Here appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Twitter’s new ‘Safety Centre‘ offers a streamlined service for users concerned about online abuse.

The promotion of “good digital citizenship” points you in the direction of extended FAQs relating to existing features.

So for individuals new to the platform it helps. There is specific information breakdowns for teachers, students, and parents.

But some changes could help tackle online Islamophobia: an updated violent threats policy now extends to “threats of violence against others or promot[ing] violence against others”. To their credit, Twitter acknowledge that the previous policy was too narrow when dealing with specific types of abuse.

An added “enforcement option” gives the support team a chance to lock abusive accounts for a period of time. There is another interesting development relating to abusive users in the pipeline.

Shreyas Doshi, Twitter’s Director of Product Management blogged in April that: “we have begun to test a product feature to help us identify suspected abusive Tweets and limit their reach. This feature takes into account a wide range of signals and context that frequently correlates with abuse including the age of the account itself, and the similarity of a Tweet to other content that our safety team has in the past independently determined to be abusive. It will not affect your ability to see content that you’ve explicitly sought out, such as Tweets from accounts you follow, but instead is designed to help us limit the potential harm of abusive content. This feature does not take into account whether the content posted or followed by a user is controversial or unpopular”.

On the surface, the changes, like at Facebook, are superficial and tailored towards ease of access. But dealing with non-direct threats and abuse could limit the capacity of anti-Muslim trolls – and is a welcome change.

The big test is to see how Twitter implements these changes. But their intention to tackle all forms of online abuse with added vigour helps.

The post Will Twitter’s new safety policies tackle online hate? appeared first on TELL MAMA.

The EDL have also suggested that they are against ‘radical’ Islam. They have tried to suggest that they are not prejudiced and that they have been targeted, as if they have been hard done by. Each time they try and make this case, a bone seems to fall out of their mouth which proves what a prejudiced bunch they are.

Today, this banner was unfurled in Sheffield. We have reported in pictures of the banner and people holding it to the police. Statements on the banner read:

“Who the F…..is Allah”,

“Keep Calm and Hate Muslims “

“Death to Islam”

We believe that some of these statements are illegal and have infringed on criminal laws. A formal complaint has been made to South Yorkshire Police and we would be happy to provide a Community Impact Statement to South Yorkshire Police if there are arrests that are made on this. We will also ensure that we work with forces to send a clear signal that hate, intolerance and bigotry is unacceptable.

The post Banner Inciting Hate Unfurled by EDL in Sheffield appeared first on TELL MAMA.