<nettime> Facebook takes down Palestinian intifada pag

[Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>]

Hi, I am not sure if many of you are following this story (the report  
below comes from CNET). I haven't seen many references to it yet. It  
is interesting in the light of the sheer endless debates about Twitter/ 
Facebook revolution yes/no/maybe/no opinion in the Middle East and  
North Africa. /Geert

March 29, 2011 11:25 AM PDT

Facebook takes down Palestinian intifada page

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20048363-93.html#ixzz1IaR029Rr
A Facebook page called the Third Palestinian Intifada has been removed  
from the site following a request from the Israeli government.

Yuli Edelstein, Israel's minister of public diplomacy and diaspora  
affairs, sent a letter directly to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on  
March 23. In the letter, which has been posted on the Web site The  
Jerusalem Gift Shop, Edelstein asked the company to take down the page  
calling for a third intifada, translated by some as violent uprising,  
to begin against Israel on May 15.

Pointing to remarks and movie clips on the page calling for the  
killing of Israelis and Jews and the liberation of Palestine through  
violence, Edelstein expressed concern over the "wild incitement" that  
could be caused by the page, which had collected more than 230,000  
friends at the time he wrote the letter.

On Friday, the Anti-Defamation League also asked Facebook to remove  
the page, labeling it "an appalling abuse of technology to promote  
terrorist violence" with "inflammatory anti-Israel language calling  
for supporters to build on the previous two intifadas."

 From its initial response, Facebook appeared reluctant to take action.

"We strongly believe that Facebook users have the ability to express  
their opinions, and we don't typically take down content, groups, or  
Pages that speak out against countries, religions, political entities,  
or ideas," Facebook spokeswoman Debbie Frost said in a statement e- 
mailed to Bloomberg.

But as of today Facebook had removed the Third Palestinian Intifada  
page. Explaining its decision, a Facebook spokesman e-mailed CNET the  
following statement:

The Page, The Third Palestinian Intifada, began as a call for peaceful  
protest, even though it used a term that has been associated with  
violence in the past. In addition, the administrators initially  
removed comments that promoted violence. However, after the publicity  
of the Page, more comments deteriorated to direct calls for violence.  
Eventually, the administrators also participated in these calls. After  
administrators of the page received repeated warnings about posts that  
violated our policies, we removed the Page.

Facebook added that it continues to "believe that people on Facebook  
should be able to express their opinions, and we don't typically take  
down content that speaks out against countries, religions, political  
entities, or ideas. However, we monitor Pages that are reported to us  
and when they degrade to direct calls for violence or expressions of  
hate--as occurred in this case--we have and will continue to take them  
down."

Saying that it welcomed the decision to take down the page, the Anti- 
Defamation League asked Facebook to "vigilantly monitor their pages  
for other groups that call for violence or terrorism against Jews and  
Israel."

Since the removal of the page, new ones have been created to replace  
it. Though the number of friends is small so far compared with the  
original, the new pages appear to mimic the first one with further  
calls in both English and Arabic for a new intifada.

Literally translated as "shaking off," the word intifada is more  
commonly translated as "revolution" or "uprising." Palestinians have  
staged two intifadas, according to CNN, one that began in 1987 and  
another that started in 2000. During the second intifada, thousands of  
Israelis and Palestinians died, CNN said.


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20048363-93.html#ixzz1IaQhWE6g





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