OP-ED: Facebook in the Middle East

Actually, Facebook currently has over 115 million users. We wish you would have focused on how Facebook is overwhelmingly being used as a platform for hatred, Holocaust denial and terrorism support largely because it has opened itself up to the Arab world. There is a list of hundreds of groups which promote these things (despite being against Facebook's own rules and despite thousands of complaints from thousands of users.) You may find this list on our site. Thank you. David Appletree The Jewish Internet Defense Force http://thejidf.org

Facebook has indeed become a significant political forum. It serves as a major source of information and venue for dialogue for today's youth. What is disturbing is that Facebook is operating according to a double standard and uneven censorship: Facebook allows several anti-Semitic groups, propaganda groups, and terrorist groups to operate with total impunity while attempting to squelch the voices of those trying to get Facebook to enforce its own terms of use policy. Facebook has attempted to quash the voices of watchdog groups such as "Facebook: Delete the group Israel is Not A Country" currently with more than 56,000 members by deleting its archives of hate speech violations. Facebook seems to want to hide the evidence that it is allowing hate speech to flourish. Strangely, Facebook allows the original posts with the hate speech to remain standing. Furthermore, Facebook allows several Pro-Palestinian groups to freely discuss the plight of the Palestinian refugees and the "Nakba", but has silenced this group from discussing the "Nakba" from a Jewish standpoint by deleting discussions despite the fact that US House Resolution #185 was recently passed to ensure that this issue be addressed in a balanced manner as it maintains that the Palestinian and Jewish refugees of 1948 be considered and addressed equally. For some reason, Facebook will only allow the Palestinian point of view to be heard on this matter and seems to be censoring the Jewish perspective. One can only wonder why. For more information, please contact one of the administrators: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10450965798