Policy Advisory Opinion 2023-01

Executive Summary

CyberWell identified and vetted 300 pieces of content on Facebook that our technology flagged as highly likely to be antisemitic. We determined that, not only is content containing the word shaheed + praise (praise, substantive support, or representation – PSR) of DOIs (Dangerous Organizations and Individuals) available on the platform despite violating Meta’s current policy, but also the current DOI policy does not go far enough. The praising of individuals who commit violent acts against Jews but who are NOT associated with a recognized FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organization) can also be found on Facebook. We recommend that Meta maintain its current DOI policy, dedicate additional resources to enforcement, and we also offer several recommendations for policy improvements to better identify and remove content using shaheed to praise violent terrorist activity.

Introduction

As a nonprofit organization committed to eradicating online Jew-hatred through driving enforcement and improvement of community guidelines and safety policies, it is important for us to provide guidance on this subject, as the term shaheed is used on social media to glorify violence against Jews. By placing additional conditions for removal of posts containing the term shaheed when in violation of Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy, we are concerned that violent and antisemitic hate speech will increase. Against the backdrop of the Supreme Court case in the US regarding upending Section 230 and roll out of the Digital Services Act in Europe, the policy changes proposed by Meta may further result in increased culpability and legal and financial repercussions.

Shaheed Context

The Arabic term shaheed literally means “witness”. It is typically translated as “martyr” because often those who are called shaheed are individuals who are considered to have “testified” or “witnessed” their loyalty to Islam through their actions. Since the meaning of shaheed varies depending on the religious, cultural, and linguistic context and may also refer to additional actions, in this comment CyberWell refers to the term shaheed ONLY when used to glorify (PSR) the death of individuals who committed violent acts.

Furthermore, many Muslim traditions describe the reward awaiting a shaheed, including ascending directly to Paradise, all sins being forgiven, a crown of glory being placed on their heads, etc. It is thus HIGHLY LIKELY that, when shaheed is used to refer to a terrorist who has died, it is being used as a PSR term to praise and glorify.

CyberWell’s Methodology

Our methodology is as follows: use of keywords -> applying specialized dictionary based in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA definition -> two rounds of human review. Our professional analysts are trained in the fields of antisemitism, linguistics, and digital policy.

Taking into consideration the versatility of the term “shaheed”, CyberWell focused on the antisemitic context of the term according to the first example in the IHRA definition - Violence: Calling for, aiding, or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion - with the following specifications when reviewing existing posts on Facebook:

• Publications in
• Praising/encouraging violence or hatred against
• Dangerous organizations and Individuals - specifically entities that engage in serious offline harms against Jews in Israel and the West Bank.

To answer the question posed by Meta, CyberWell’s antisemitism focused tech flagged over 400 publications containing the word shaheed as highly likely to include antisemitic material. We examined over 300 Facebook publications containing the term shaheed (with a focus on 2022-2023 and including a few outliers still live from as early as 2011) on its own and in different word combinations, such as:

"الشهيد" [shaheed]

"الشهيد" AND “البطل” [shaheed AND hero]

"الشهيد" AND “القسام الدين عز” / "حماس" [shaheed AND Izz al-Din al-Qassam / Hamas]

"الشهيد" AND "القائد” [shaheed AND commander] "الشهيد" AND “يهود” [shaheed AND Jews] Overview

The sample of data presented in this document is divided into three types. Specific examples and links to posts still online are in a separate document: Appendix of Harmful Live Content Containing Shaheed.

1. The term shaheed + reference to a designated Dangerous Organization or In this report we focused on the FTOs Hamas and Islamic Jihad and associated individuals.
2. The term shaheed + reference to terror organizations and individuals NOT designated as FTOs but which engage in serious offline harms ex: The Lion’s
3. The term shaheed + reference to

Main Recommendations

• Enforcement - According to Meta’s current policy, posts using the word shaheed to refer to individuals recognized under the DOI policy should be removed. However, despite Meta’s claim that posts containing shaheed + DOIs are removed at a high rate, posts with this condition can still be found online. As demonstrated in CyberWell’s dataset of publications designated as “Type 1”, this existing policy is enforced ONLY IN PART. CyberWell therefore concludes that it is NOT advisable to deviate from the current policy by placing additional conditions for removal on this content.
• Expansion - Frequent turnover in actors and changes in power between organizations and rogue cells in areas of conflict create conditions in which individuals and organizations that engage in serious offline harm and violence are often not recognized as DOIs, leaving them outside of Meta’s policy. Seeing the broad scope of publications using the word shaheed to praise terrorists and encourage violent attacks against Jews raises the importance of expanding Meta’s policy and monitoring the usage of the word shaheed when referring to individuals who are not necessarily related to designated terror organizations.
• Antisemitism - The term shaheed not only violates the DOI policy, but also is often associated with other forms of hate content. Out of 68 publications using the word combination “shaheed” AND “Jews” – 16 posts, or 24%, were flagged as antisemitic by CyberWell.

Recommendations

• Continue Meta’s current approach and remove content that uses shaheed to refer to recognized DOIs.
• Dedicate additional resources to enforcing the existing DOI
• Create additional policies for the identification and removal of posts praising offline acts of violence committed by those not already associated with recognized FTOs.
• Flag hashtags referring to specific terror attacks, for instance: “#القدس_عملية”
• Flag posts with the combination of “shaheed” AND “hero”, "الشهيد"AND “البطل”
• Monitor additional forms of the word shaheed including but not limited to:

- شهداء- plural

- شهدا – common misspelling of the plural form

• Flag posts with the combination of the words shaheed AND “Jews”.

Appendix of Harmful Live Content Containing Shaheed

• Type 1 - The term shaheed + reference to a recognized
• Type 2 - The term shaheed + reference to organizations and individuals NOT designated as FTOs but which engage in serious offline harms.
• Type 3 - The term shaheed + reference to

Type 1: The term shaheed + reference to a recognized DOI

Examples represent and glorify Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders and activists.

Example 1: Ahmad Yassin, a founder of Hamas (photo included in post)

Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/178590195516314/posts/198097450232255/

Relevant content: “[…] the dignified shaheed Sheikh the hero Ahmad Yassin […]”

Example 2

Link: https://www.facebook.com/100009901443748/posts/1897831560556874

Relevant content: "the assassination of engineer Mohammad al-Zawari? [...] the assassination of the shaheed [...] The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades announced mourning for the istishhad of the engineer of the Hamas drone project, and mourned, mourned, and glorified him […].”

Example 3

Link: https://www.facebook.com/100000256504993/posts/5320819658009184

Relevant Content: "[…] mourned the shaheeds of our people in the Gaza Strip, headed by the leaders of the Islamic Jihad movement, the shaheed Taysir al-Jabari and the shaheed Khaled Mansour […]"

Additional type 1 posts still online:

1. https://www.facebook.com/100000256504993/posts/5994622367219075
2. https://www.facebook.com/100079059010698/posts/170696902242276
3. https://www.facebook.com/100063615734738/posts/577264324404087
4. https://www.facebook.com/100001839545844/posts/8485848104819757
5. https://www.facebook.com/1515688123/posts/10229368647750087
6. https://www.facebook.com/100002009270609/posts/5862129463863971
7. https://www.facebook.com/100001995197832/posts/5870666679676447

Type 2: The term shaheed + reference to individuals NOT NECISSARILY belonging to a recognized FTO but who engage in serious offline harms.

Example 1: Muataz al-Khawaja (photo included in post)

On March 9th, 2023, Muataz al-Khawaja wounded three people in a shooting in Tel Aviv. Hamas claimed Muataz al-Khawaja as a member, but his membership is not verified.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid0eeziCah7aPMecdfo7Rw8tNBPsJFMb7A7AVmWer ySeJ224RNQJ1SywagyxCiXfVh3l&id=100071650284392

Relevant Content: “The hero shaheed Muataz al-Hawaja”.

Example 2: Khairy Alqam

On Jan 27th, 2023, Khairy Alqam shot and murdered 7 people exiting a synagogue in Neve Yaakov. The terror organization the Lion’s Den took responsibility for the attack.

The hashtag refers to terror attacks in Jerusalem [#operation_al-quds]

Link: https://www.facebook.com/100046585731709/posts/759871472242370

Relevant Content: “Two weeks after the heroic operation of the shaheed Khairy Alqam, the shaheed Hussein Qaraqe (31 years old) carries out a new commando operation in the eternal Palestinian capital, Jerusalem […] #القدس_عملية”

Example 3: Udai al-Tamimi

On Oct 8th, 2023, Udai al-Tamimi murdered a Jewish Israeli soldier and then carried out another shooting attack ten days later.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/100006548053704/posts/3515849391976628 Relevant Content: "The istishhad of Udai al-Tamimi [,] the Palestinian young man who carried out the heroic Shuafat attack [...]#Shaheed_Uday_al-Tamimi”

Additional type 2 posts still online:

1. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02VjZH17rmXaQSJbUxHSJfRvWHR6Q6c 5KiRA7L6GCmc4VNoAFTuGyWr6M9uHVguEsxl&id=100004441452062
2. https://www.facebook.com/mutasemalkhawaja/posts/pfbid02FzDP9SYDW5r8HZTiWefQS7YCANv8L uyCfmyJp4Wifzd3YC8DacGNB927GVjVFQAbl
3. https://www.facebook.com/100088954804120/posts/128009450174215
4. https://www.facebook.com/100071914053983/posts/215038874236580
5. https://www.facebook.com/100009035544665/posts/3141199816191172
6. https://www.facebook.com/maha.jaghel/posts/pfbid02JjDxWXS5CyvPzCeHX2q5AakumB3rq1uF6w5N YnomhCVGkDPiPgFDujL5ZBF4AFjGl
7. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02PT1mCcZ4dUFwcuGJ9AVbPVnTrSEVz DRnxbL9ezHX9pTnPXybwsp37Zgf3NvdA76nl&id=100015206250973

Type 3: The term shaheed + reference to Jews

The term shaheed and the antisemitic tropes in the following examples are not directly connected to each other. However, we see from the data that when posts contain both shaheed and reference to Jews, they often include religious hate speech and antisemitic discourse, such as accusing Jews of killing the prophet Muhammad, the conspiracy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and Jews being evil and planning world domination.

Example 1

This antisemitic story originates in Sirat al-Nabi, and in this post is presented as a fact.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/100004970314451/posts/2356728461169475

Relevant Content: "[…] Did the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, die, or was he killed as shaheed? In fact, the Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, was poisoned, that is, he was killed. Who killed him: a Jewish woman.”

Example 2

Link: https://www.facebook.com/100009410962393/posts/3458987404424924 Relevant Content: “the shaheed president Mursi […] they allied, finally, with American imperialism, Christian Zionism and Jewish Zionism to destroy and divide Iraq […]".

Example 3

This conspiracy theory claims that Jews control Al-Jazeera. Jews controlling the media is a classic antisemitic trope (IHRA type 2).

Link: https://www.facebook.com/187141311912868/posts/1032942353999422

Relevant Content: “Scholars warning of Al-Jazeera Jewish channel

#Al-Jazeera_is evil […] this is dangerous listening to and watching Al-Jazeera […] attacking churches that do not say that Ghufran [Ghufran Warasneh] is a shaheeda? Or is it severe for the Muslim and merciful for the infidel?”

Additional type 3 posts still online:

1. https://www.facebook.com/100045666786047/posts/639272904271597
2. https://www.facebook.com/100002439108131/posts/1054302625477941
3. https://www.facebook.com/100046225835312/posts/767287631488758
4. https://www.facebook.com/100007302854018/posts/3236555469931183
5. https://www.facebook.com/100009942106458/posts/1796295410711845
6. https://www.facebook.com/100077876334494/posts/163386309600579
7. https://www.facebook.com/100003495446314/posts/4813578245435309