Sacha Baron Cohen slams Twitter over failure to prevent antisemitic posts

Borat actor Sacha Baron Cohen has criticized Twitter and its CEO, Jack Dorsey, over the platform’s failure to take action over antisemitic posts.

In a message posted on Saturday, Cohen wrote: “The surge in antisemitism on the streets is fueled by antisemitism on social media. @Jack @Twitter — Why do you allow #HitlerWasRight?! Those who celebrate the Holocaust aim to perpetuate another. #StopHateForProfit.”

The award-winning actor also provided a link to a report published last week by the Anti-Defamation League that found more than 17,000 tweets “used variations of the phrase ‘Hitler was right’” between May 7 and May 14.

Meanwhile the BBC has announced that it is investigating one of its journalists, Tala Halawi, after media-monitoring website Honest Reporting on Sunday highlighted a Tweet she posted several years ago that included the hashtag “HitlerWasRight”.

In a message apparently posted in 2014, before she joined the BBC, she allegedly wrote: “#Israel is more #Nazi then #Hitler! Oh, #HitlerWasRight #IDF go to hell. #PrayForGaza.”

The fighting between Palestinians and Israelis this month caused a sharp increase in antisemitic hate speech, threats of violence and harassment on social media. It also sparked heavy criticism of social media platforms, especially Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, which came under scrutiny for alleged bias in the way they handled coverage of the conflict.

For instance, pro-Palestinian activists launched a campaign that criticized Facebook for heavy censorship of Palestinian-related content. The social media company reportedly removed thousands of posts about Palestine and the Israeli attacks.