Press Releases

Washington D.C. – U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25) and Canadian MP Anthony Housefather (Mount Royal), co-chairs of the Interparliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism, released the following statement commending Meta’s decision to classify antisemitic content employing the word “Zionist” as a proxy for “Jew” as hate speech:

“As co-chairs of the Interparliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism, we commend Meta's recent decision to accurately classify the abuse of the term 'Zionist' as a proxy for antisemitic hate and incitement of violence against Jews on their platforms. We are proud to have advocated for this hard- fought victory since the founding of the Task Force in 2020 through letters, hearings, roundtables, and meetings with Meta executive leadership.

“For decades, the term ‘Zionist’ has been exploited by antisemites around the world to shield their true intentions and claim they are targeting a political movement rather than a protected class. These tactics have been eagerly adopted by online extremists, from pro-Hamas agitators to far-right white supremacists, who have flooded our feeds with lazily-disguised phrases ('kill all Zionists', 'crush Zionism', 'Zionists control the media', 'Zionists are disloyal' etc.) with impunity. The result has been a wave of antisemitic conspiracies that has bred surging hate crimes and harassment against Jewish communities around the world.

“It does not matter to Jewish users whether they are threatened online as a Zionist or as a Jew. It matters that social platforms and community leaders work together to reverse the spread of targeted, hateful, violent content online. We look forward to advising Meta on the implementation of this policy, urging other digital media companies to follow Meta's lead, and continuing to advocate for a whole-of-society approach to end the scourge of online antisemitism.”

Co-chaired by Wasserman Schultz and Housefather, the Interparliamentary Task Force consists of a multi-partisan group of parliamentarians from around the world, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the European Union, Costa Rica, and Israel.

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