New York, NY, May 31, 2016 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the European Jewish Congress and European Union of Jewish Students announced today the expansion for European Internet users of ADL’s Cyber-Safety Action Guide.
This announcement follows today’s agreement among leading Internet companies, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Microsoft, and the European Commission on a “Code of Conduct” to address online hate speech.
“The Code of Conduct announced today closely tracks ADL’s Best Practices for Responding to Cyberhate, originally released in 2014, following months of discussions and deliberations by an industry Working Group on Cyberhate convened by ADL,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Empowering users to better report hate speech is an integral part of these efforts, and we look forward to working with EJC and EUJS to bring our Cyber-Safety Action Guide to Europe.”
ADL’s Cyber-Safety Action Guide features tabs where visitors may access information on submitting complaints and reporting hate speech to the major U.S.-based online companies, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The ADL resource provides quick links to each company’s cyber-bullying and harassment policies and terms of service, as well as links directly to online complaint forms. It is currently available in English and in Spanish.
The European Jewish Congress and European Union of Jewish Students will work with ADL to develop French and German versions initially and additional European language versions subsequently.
The project responds to the Code of Conduct’s call “to educate and raise awareness with [Internet companies’] users about the types of content not permitted under their rules and community guidelines” and “to encourage the provision of notices and flagging of content that promotes incitement to violence and hateful conduct at scale by experts, particularly via partnerships with CSOs [civil society organizations], by providing clear information on individual company Rules and Community Guidelines and rules on the reporting and notification processes.”
EJC President Moshe Kantor said, “Today some of the greatest platforms for hate and intolerance are in cyber space and we dare not ignore them. We need to make the Internet as safe a place as possible for all people and ensure that those who preach hate and incitement are condemned and investigated with the full force of the law.”
EUJS President Benny Fischer added: “The Cyber Safety Action Guide makes online activism easier for everyone, making the Internet safer, and serving society as a whole. The project affirms the commitment to our essential credo: Jewish Rights are Human Rights! We are proud to be part of this great initiative and happy that a youth perspective was included.”
EJC, which signed a partnership agreement with ADL earlier this year, participated in today’s meeting with the European Commission and Internet companies and submitted for their consideration ADL’s March 2016 report, “Responding to Cyberhate: Progress and Trends,” which illustrates over just the past two years how cyberhate manifests itself and how the industry has become more serious and more sophisticated in dealing with the problem.