Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 06:09, 22 August 2008

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The Jewish Internet
Defense Force

Type of site	Online activism, Israel advocacy
URL	www.TheJIDF.org

The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) is an online organization that tries to remove material from the Internet which its members believe promotes or praises terror and racial hatred, including in particular sites they deem to be antisemitic and anti-Israel in nature. The group has focused its attention specifically on Facebook, YouTube, Google Earth, and Misplaced Pages.

Organization

The JIDF says it "formed as a grassroots effort in 2000, mainly to mount mass e-mail campaigns, in response to the second intifada." The organization's web site was created in May 2008 and the first press references to the "Jewish Internet Defence Force" appeared shortly thereafter. The organization was founded and is currently run by David Appletree. The JIDF claims to have 5000 members worldwide.

Activities

The JIDF encourages e-mail campaigns to site administrators of social networking websites to inform them about content which the JIDF deems to be objectionable and contrary to the site's acceptable use policy. Its members also join Facebook groups to "take over" those groups by means which the JIDF does not specify on their site. The JIDF states that the use of such methods does not violate a site's acceptable use policy.

The JIDF created a Facebook group entitled "FACEBOOK: Why do you aid and abet terrorist organizations?", where it organized its members to communicate with Facebook administrators about a number of Facebook groups which they accused of violating Facebook's terms of use, successfully leading to the closure of over 100 of these groups. Activity in this area increased in March 2008 when David Appletree saw Facebook groups that praised the person responsible for the Mercaz HaRav massacre in Jerusalem.

The JIDF says they began taking control of a number of other groups, most notably the Facebook group "Israel is not a country! Delist it from Facebook as a country" after Facebook administrators did not take action to shut the group down. According to the JIDF, Facebook's inaction came "despite thousands of user complaints over the course of eighteen months". The "Israel is not a country..." group had previously been explored and described as antisemitic in a report as well as in the press. Since the JIDF intervention, the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism (CFCA) has highlighted the issue by including a Telegraph article on the topic in its archive. The Anti Defamation League (ADL) cite the "Israel is not a country..." group as an example of antisemitism on Facebook and describe it as "strongly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic".

See also

• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Internet activism
• Media coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict

References

1. ^ "JIDF Response to Misplaced Pages". Aug 5, 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. Stephanie Rubenstein (July 30, 2008). "Jewish Internet Defense Force 'seizes control' of anti-Israel Facebook group". Jerusalem: The Jerusalem Post. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. "WHOIS recordfor "thejidf.org"". DomainTools. August 21, 2008.
4. ^ Morrison, Sarah (April 3, 2008). "Jewish Activist Battles For Israel on Facebook". Arutz 7. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
5. "Sample E-mail Activism Letter". May 20, 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. Moore, Matthew (July 31, 2008). "Facebook: 'Anti-Semitic' group hijacked by Jewish force". London: The Telegraph. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. Andre Oboler (2008-04-01). "Online Antisemitism 2.0. "Social Antisemitism" on the "Social Web"". Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Retrieved 2008-08-14. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
8. Andre Oboler (February 5, 2008). "Facing up to the 'Facebook' dilemma". The Jerusalem Post. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
9. Tamar Snyder (February 20, 2008). "Anti-Semitism 2.0 Going Largely Unchallenged". The Jewish Week. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
10. "Israel - Facebook: 'Anti-Semitic' group hijacked by Jewish force"". CFCA Archives. Retrieved 2008-08-18. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
11. "Help ADL fight the next generation of online extremism "". ADL. Retrieved 2008-08-18. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

External links

• The Jewish Internet Defense Force (Official website)
• The Jewish Internet Defense Force (Facebook group)

• Arab-Israeli conflict
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Zionist organizations