Social media executives gave testimony on Friday to Congress on their platforms’ work to combat online antisemitism.
They appeared in front of the first hearing of the Inter-Parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Anti-Semitism, which contains members from multiple countries including the United States, Canada and Israel.
"The repetition of lies and propaganda and the amplification of hate speech to justify or even enable political violence is an old strategy now operating in a massive scale through the power of social media and digital platforms," chair of the Task Force, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), said, according to UPI.
"Combating the evil forces of antisemitism and extremism online is the first step in preventing antisemitic ideologically motivated and hateful violence on the streets."
Testimony came from senior officials from Facebook parent company Meta, Twitter and Youtube.
Neil Potts, Meta's vice president for trust and safety policy, testified that Meta regularly updates its hate speech regulations, including banning Holocaust denial and antisemitic stereotypes.
He added that Meta had partnered with Jewish organizations to educate about antisemitism awareness and to give a voice to Holocaust survivors.
Twitter executive Michele Austin said that her company had worked with the ADL and other advocacy organizations to update its policies on antisemitic content.
"We take action against content and behavior that attempts to glorify, praise or deny acts of violence and genocide which includes the Holocaust. Antisemitic abuse has absolutely no place on Twitter,” she said. "We also recognize that if people receive abuse and harassment on Twitter, it can discourage them from expressing themselves.”
Youtube government affairs and public policy executive Kevin Kane said: "There is no place on YouTube for hateful content.”
He added that Youtube operated on “pillars of responsibility,” including removing hate speech and Holocaust denial.
"Responsibility is and will continue to be our top number one priority. Our business depends on it," Kane said. "We have made huge progress making our community safer, but we know that our work is not done nor will it ever be."
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)