A Twitter official on Wednesday informed Israeli lawmakers that tweets in which Iranian officials, in particular Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, pledge to eradicate the Jewish state are not in violation of the social media giant's rules against hate speech.
Ylwa Pettersson, Twitter's head policy for the Nordic countries and Israel said that such posts are considered mere "foreign policy saber-rattling."
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
Twitter's rules on terrorism and violent extremism state, "There is no place on Twitter for … individuals who affiliate with and promote [terrorist group's] illicit activities. … Our assessments in this context are informed by national and international terrorism designations."
"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 was quoted by the Times of Israel as telling the Knesset's Committee for Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs, via video-conference.
Today more than ever, the interest of the Islamic Nation lies in #unity, the type of unity that creates power against enemies and shouts out loudly at the embodied #Satan, the encroaching US, and its chained dog, the #Zionist regime, and stands up against aggression.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) July 29, 2020
"Calling for genocide on Twitter is okay, but commenting on the political situation in certain countries is not okay?" asked Blue and White MK Michal Cotler-Wunsh, to which Pettersson reportedly replied, "If a world leader violates our rules but there is a clear interest in keeping that up on the service we may place it behind a notice that provides some more context about the violation and allows people to click through if they wish to see that type of content."
"Wow. Twitter just admitted that tweets calling genocide against Jews by Iranian leaders DON'T violate its policy!", Cotler-Wunsh tweeted after the session ended. "This is a double standard. This is antisemitism."
Hearing in the Immigration and Integration Commmittee today following the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate blackout.
I called on Twitter to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. Twitter cannot claim to be combatting this form of a hatred without using the consensus definition for it. pic.twitter.com/ENU5sCBf0D
— מיכל קוטלר-וונש - Michal Cotler-Wunsh (@CotlerWunsh) July 29, 2020
A spokesperson for Twitter later said that tweets the likes of which are posted by Khamenei "are not in violation of our policies," pointing to the company's policy according to which "foreign policy saber-rattling on economic or military issues are generally not in violation of the Twitter Rules."
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
