The UK's Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, has accused Facebook and Twitter of being involved in anti-Semitic hatred in connection with recent remarks against Jews by grime rapper Wiley.
"The woeful lack of responsible leadership […] cannot be allowed to stand. Your inaction amounts to complicity. I urge you to take swift action to challenge the hatred that currently thrives on your platform", the Chief Rabbi wrote in a letter that was made public on Monday.
He apparently referred to Twitter taking its time before scrapping Wiley’s anti-Semitic comments.
The statement came as Mirvis joined well-known UK celebs, politicians, and faith leaders in a 48-hour boycott of Twitter to protest the platform's alleged lack of action on anti-Semitism.
And we’re out.#NoSafeSpaceForJewHate #48HoursSilence @Twitter sort your site out pic.twitter.com/uhLbhGitFL
— Tracy-Ann Oberman (@TracyAnnO) July 27, 2020
As the @SELabour ALC Rep proud this is being supported by @LabourCllrs and I will be joining the #48HoursSilence from 9am tomorrow. #SilenceTalks#NoSafeSpaceForJewHate @hopenothate https://t.co/o2DcXQTAr4
— Vince Maple #VoteVince4NEC (@vincemaple) July 26, 2020
Mirvis was echoed by a spokesperson for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who blamed the social networks for not being quick enough to remove the "abhorrent" messages
"Social media companies need to go much further and faster in removing hateful content such as this", the spokesperson stressed earlier on Monday.
The statement followed Metropolitan Police opening a probe into Wiley’s anti-Semitic comments late last week, shortly after it was revealed that the rapper had been dropped by his management company and temporarily banned from posting on Twitter.
His tweets included a string of jabs, including "I don't care about Hitler, I care about black people" as he also drew comparisons between Jewish people and the Klu Klux Klan.
Notably, the messages were still visible about 12 hours after being shared, in what provoked accusations that the social networking giants were "ignoring anti-Semitism".
A Facebook spokesperson has, meanwhile, pointed out that "there is no place for hate speech on Instagram" and that they "have deleted content that violates our policies from this [Wiley’s] account and have blocked access to it for seven days".
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