Determined to take down cyber anti-Semites

NICOLA MILTZ

“You deserve to be kidnapped and tortured for the satanic actions against the noble Palestinian people. We know your names and addresses [three leaders in the community were named] and the rest of the Jewish Mafia that is eating our blood and subverting our democracy. WE ARE COMING AFTER YOU.”

This chilling message was posted on the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ (SAJBD) Facebook site in July 2014. Three years later and an enormous effort on the part of the Board, and they are still no closer to bringing the perpetrator to book.

The ”fake” individual who originally posted it, remains unidentified and safely ensconced in Cyberland.

It effectively requires a change of law, which is what the SAJBD is advocating, as well as a much needed change in the way cyber hate crimes are dealt with.

It has been an “immensely frustrating” journey into the heart of the cyber underworld with the SAJBD working tirelessly in a desperate bid to help curb the scourge of hate speech currently flooding online activity. 

 “So much more needs to be done in terms of the law, to get international social media companies to assist local law enforcement agencies in identifying perpetrators of online hate speech,” said SAJBD National Director Wendy Kahn.

“Cyber hate is a reality facing many communities in South Africa, not just the Jewish community. The lack of knowledge in dealing with this crime is horrific and concerning,” she said.

Law enforcement on the ground is “clueless” when it comes to timeously addressing potentially dangerous threats and incitement to violence threats that “make us all very vulnerable”, she added.

The Board vows to “stop at nothing”, in its fight to track down and apprehend perpetrators of cyber hate – a mission which it says has proven “much more difficult” than it ever imagined.

Members of the Board met with social media stakeholders, including representatives from Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo, in New York recently in an attempt to address current problems faced by countries falling victim to this type of hateful online rhetoric and incitement to violence.

In New York, Kahn addressed top-level players on the social media world stage. She told them of the Board’s frustrations about combatting local cyber hate in South Africa.

“It is all very well for cities like London, New York and Paris to fast track the identification process, but when you’re in Johannesburg where there is little if any social media representation, it is a different story,” she told representatives.

The meeting was convened by the US-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is leading the way in combatting and exposing anti-Semitism worldwide.

“We have been working with the ADL for several years dealing with our local challenges in particular,” said Kahn.

The vile Facebook message was written by a fictitious “Phumza Zondi”. This was not the only message; there was a plethora of similar posts on social media by extremists who surfaced during the 2014 Israeli-Gaza conflict.

“The number of hate mail rose substantially during this period,” said Kahn.

The problem with 90 per cent of the posts at the time, was that the source could not be identified. “In the past perpetrators could easily be traced and charged, but now through social media they can hide behind the veil of anonymity,” said Kahn.

So, instead of brazenly vocalising their anti-Semitism in public using their own names, perpetrators successfully hide behind undetectable, fictitious names, “making it next to impossible” to trace and apprehend them.

While Facebook is willing to assist in identifying the user’s true identity, there is a long and winding maze of legal and administrative processes to follow, often leading straight back to square one.

“Facebook will take a post down, but it is very difficult to take legal action when identities are hidden,” said Kahn.

The situation is further complicated by global freedoms and company law – different in each country.

SAJBD knew it had “a very serious problem” when it took its complaint to the Sandringham Police Station in July 2014. “No one in the charge office had a clue what Facebook was,” said Kahn.

Since the shock of realising that local law enforcement “was totally ill-equipped” to deal with matters of cyber hate crimes and cyber hate speech, she and members of the Jewish community have been determined to find a way to address this scourge.

But their efforts, which have taken them through the corridors of every available department of law enforcement, have met with very little if any success.

“We have phenomenal laws against hate speech in South Africa and it is because of this that we have managed till now to keep anti-Semitism levels relatively low. But laws against online hate speech are inadequate,” said Kahn.

In August last year Kahn made a public submission to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications on this very topic, during public hearings on the Film and Publications Amendment Bill.

While the SAJBD is no closer to identifying the fictitious “Phumza Zondi”, it is hopeful that new laws are being promulgated and law enforcement agents are becoming more equipped in dealing with the problem. The controversial Prevention and Combatting of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill, still poses dangers in its current form to freedom of expression.

“But we now know the faces of Facebook and other social media companies. Going forward we will have improved channels of communication. Furthermore, we will continue to try and address our serious issues around assisting law enforcement personnel with accessing identity information.

“This is not just about the Jewish community,” said Kahn, “It is for all of us, foreign nationals, the LGBTI community, Muslims and women. We need a way to fight this scourge, this new form of hate.”