Photo via Valeurs Actuelles
It all began with a hashtag. Seemingly innocuous at first glance, #unbonjuif, when translated from French means “a good Jew.” Yet in a sea of anti-Semitic tweets and hashtags, #unbonjuif gained traction, becoming the third most popular trending topic. The hate fest that ensued included everything from “a good jew is a dead jew” to Holocaust humor and pictures of dustpans filled with dust. At its utmost escalation there were direct calls to murder Jews.
Far from being a novel issue, racism has long plagued twitter- if you were to search at this moment you would be find a barrage of anti-Semitic attacks. In France, anti-Semitic hate online is a huge issue, with various forums absolutely flooded with threats and offensive “humor.” But 2012 marked a turning point in terms of activism.
It was in 2012 that in response to the #unbonjuif trend, French student leader Jonathan Hayoun of the Union of Jewish French Students (UEJF), took legal action and managed to get twitter to take down the offending tweets in a massive lawsuit.
The court ruled that Twitter must turn over the names of users who made the offending tweets- which Twitter appealed. UEJF filed a second suit for $50 million and after a legal battle spanning several months, twitter turned over the data to the French prosecutors to help them identify the authors of some of the anti-Semitic tweets (including IP and email addresses).
What stands out to me in this case was that the lawsuit was not the work of major French or European Jewish organizations like CRIF. It’s a stunning example of a younger generation of Jews taking initiative and generating real, tangible change.
This landmark case is truly amazing in that it resulted in additional social media sites clamping down on anti-Semitism. This includes Youtube, Facebook, and even Google.
Jonathan Hayoun has since become a member of the CRIF executive committee, and has stated of the CRIF and other organizations that “People can’t feel represented by their institutions if these same institutions don’t make them want to get involved at the community level…We need to make Jewish associations more modern and appealing to young people.”
It seems to me that he will be the one to make that happen.
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