Twitter OK’s Iranian Calls To Annihilate Israel

July 30, 2020

“You thought incitement is incitement is incitement? Not by Twitter’s double-standard morals,” tweeted Minister Farkash-Hacohen.

By Yakir Benzion

Israeli officials expressed shock and outrage Thursday after a Twitter company official told a Knesset committee that repeated tweets by Iranian leaders calling for Israel’s destruction do not violate Twitter company policy.

“You thought incitement is incitement is incitement? Not by Twitter’s double-standard morals,” tweeted Minister of Strategic Affairs Orit Farkash-Hacohen.

In May, Farkash-Hacohen sent a furious letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, calling on him “to uphold his own Hateful Content Policy and immediately remove the genocidal and #antisemitic content spewed by @khamenei_ir for far too long. His calls for violence and mass murder need to be banned now!”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly tweeted his desire for Israel’s destruction.

“Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated,” Khamenei tweeted.

However, that seemed to fall on deaf ears at Twitter.

On Wednesday, Twitter’s head of policy for the Nordic countries and Israel, Ylwa Pettersson, told a Knesset committee in a video conference call that Khamenei’s tweets calling for Israel’s destruction do not violate the company’s rules against hate speech.

Pettersson told the incredulous Knesset members that Twitter considers those tweets mere “foreign policy saber-rattling.”

“We have an approach toward leaders that says that direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on military-economic issues are generally not in violation of our rules,” Pettersson explained.

Those present on the call were outraged, including international human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky.

“I kid you not! At Knesset hearing on Antisemitism, @Twitter rep tells me they flag @realDonaldTrump because it serves ‘public conversation’, but not Iran’s @khamenei_ir call for GENOCIDE, which passes for acceptable ‘commentary on political issues of the day’,” Ostrovksy tweeted.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley was also outraged.

“What does this say when @Twitter censors @realDonaldTrump more than the Ayatollah? Social media needs to give conservatives the same rights as they give terrorist leaders,” Haley tweeted.

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