Andre
Oboler
The Antisemitic Meme
of the Jew is a cartoon picture depicting a negative stereotype of a Jewish man
with a black beard, long hooked nose, a hunched back, crooked teeth, and hands
being wrung in glee. The image was created by a white supremacist cartoonist
and has been online in neo-Nazi circles since at least 2004. The report looks
at the history and significance of this image.
The main focus of this
report is on the effort to give the antisemitic image on the cover of the
report public acceptance as a part of mainstream online culture. This is being
attempted through an effort to game the “Know Your Meme” website, a significant
database of Internet Memes. This would increase the acceptability of using the
image and significantly contribute to further normalisation of antisemitism in
online society. It would take the racist portrayal of Jews from the neo-Nazi
fringe into the mainstream. This report provides recommendations to help
prevent that occurring.
The report also
examines the efforts to attribute a false history to the image and to promote
the image and this false history through a Facebook page (see our briefing on the page). Facebook does need to improve its systems so negative feedback
back (rejecting users’ reports) is minimized and those already upset and taking
the time to notify Facebook of racist content are not given a message that
Facebook considers the content acceptable. Even if the content is eventually
removed, such a message sends a signal that the dignity of minority groups is
of little value to the company.
The report suggests a
site like “Know Your Meme” can play a valuable count speech role in exposing
the racist nature memes such as this one. This can raise awareness that such
content is not acceptable in online communities. The report provides
recommendations to achieve this without glorifying and promoting the hate
itself.
The report also discusses the
“Jewish Ritual Slaughter” page which is promoting the Blood Libel on Facebook,
and the return and re-removal of the Holcoaust denial page “The Untold
History”.
