We call on Twitter to suspend accounts that incite violence against the Jewish community, perpetuate antisemitic tropes, and spread disinformation about the Holocaust- beginning with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the political and religious leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We also call on Twitter to be transparent about its policies towards antisemitism- what’s allowed and what’s prohibited on its platform- and enforce its policies against all hate in a consistent manner.

Twitter has an antisemitism problem.

Last July, 2020, the hashtag #JewishPrivilege was trending.

Nearly a year later, on May 13, 2021, the hashtag #Covid1948 was trending. The hateful hashtag, likening the birth of the State of Israel in 1948 to the COVID-19 pandemic - was a coordinated effort by pro-Iranian Twitter accounts.

According to the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), the hashtag was shared up to 175 times per minute for over 4 hours on May 13, 2021, often appearing alongside hashtags like #FreePalestine and #Hitlerwasright.

The Anti-Defamation League analyzed Twitter in the days following the recent outbreak of violence in the Middle East, and over the course of 7 days observed more than 17,000 tweets using variations of the phrase, “Hitler was right.”

It is an incontrovertible fact that Palestinians suffer on a daily basis- largely due to the rule of Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by Canada, the European Union, Japan, and the United States. The civilized world can, and must, do more to help Palestinians. But this isn't about the Middle East Conflict; this is about Judeophobia, the fear and hatred of Jews. This is about antisemitism on one of the world's most popular social media platforms.

While Iran has banned its 83 million citizens from using Twitter, Khamenei regularly Tweets hateful, antisemitic, violent propaganda across at least 5 languages and 6 accounts, in Arabic (@ar_khamenei), Persian (@khamenei_fa), Russian (@khameneiru), Spanish (@es_khamenei), and English (@khamenei_ir and @khamenei_tv). Obviously his goal is not to inform his nation - none of whom can even access Twitter - but to instigate violence against Jews.

In 2020, he wrote that Israel is a "deadly, cancerous growth" that will "undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed," adding that the only remedy until then is "firm, armed resistance."

On May 7, 2021 - Quds Day - he wrote that Israeli Jews colluded with the “two camps of capitalism & communism,” and described the Jewish state as “illegitimate.”

On May 7, 2021, he retweeted a cartoon of missiles flying down on top of a Jewish man standing in a grave.

And on the same day, he called on Palestinians to continue their “correct fight against the usurping regime (i.e. Israel).”

It is no coincidence that just a few days later, between 10-21 May, 2021, at least 4,000 rockets were indiscriminately fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. Some 20 or 30% misfired, killing Gazan civilians, while more than 90% were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome.

It is also no coincidence that pro-Palestinian demonstrators around the world not only condemned Israel but chose to indiscriminately attack Jews as well, throwing professional grade fireworks at Jews in Midtown New York City, beating a man wearing a yarmulke, and assaulting Jewish diners at a restaurant in Los Angeles.

These are not isolated events. 2019 saw the most antisemitic incidents in 40 years in the United States. Antisemitism is surging in Europe, Australia, Canada, and indeed around the world.

For all intents and purposes, anti-Zionism amounts to antisemitism. There is simply too much overlap these days for such distinctions to have any meaning.

The actor Mark Ruffalo recently apologized for suggesting on Twitter that Israel is committing “genocide.” He wrote: “It’s not accurate, it’s inflammatory, disrespectful & is being used to justify antisemitism here & abroad. Now is the time to avoid hyperbole.”

We agree.

Today, fake Twitter accounts are impersonating Jews and promoting antisemitism, stirring tensions between Jews and Arabs and between Jews and Blacks. Fake Twitter accounts (and real ones) disseminate conspiracy theories tying Jews to the slave trade and global economic control. In the most recent conflict, fake Twitter accounts falsely claimed that Israel torched East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and posted fake screenshots of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Twitter account as saying: "We just love killing" and "Just bombed some kids".

Twitter - and all major social media platforms - have a responsibility to protect against this vile, pernicious disinformation. They also have a responsibility to combat Holocaust denial.

Khamenei has a long history of Holocaust denial. For example, in 2012 he called the reality of the Holocaust “questionable”; in 2014 he called the reality of the Holocaust “uncertain”; in 2020, he asked: “Why is it a crime to raise doubts about the Holocaust?”

With Holocaust denial on the rise and Nazi symbols and rhetoric making a terrifying resurgence across the world, Twitter doesn’t even add a label or warning message to these dangerous lies. While Twitter so quickly adds the “harmfully misleading” label to COVID-19 disinformation, Twitter allows Holocaust denial to run rampant.

One third of Europeans have little to no knowledge of the Holocaust.

In the United States, 23% of young adults believe the Holocaust is a “myth” and 11% believe that Jews caused the Holocaust. 49% of U.S. Millennials and Gen Z had seen Holocaust denial or distortion posts on social media, and 30% of respondents had seen Nazi symbols on their social media platforms or in their community.

Holocaust denial is pervasive throughout social media. A 97-year-old Holocaust survivor who answers Holocaust questions on TikTok, for instance, was recently overwhelmed with antisemitic hate, including posts that praised Hitler.

Twitter has acted before against Khamenei:

In January 2021, when Khamenei questioned the trustworthiness of the COVID-19 vaccines, Twitter removed the offending Tweet.

And in 2019, when Khamenei apparently called for the execution of Salman Rushdie, Twitter removed that Tweet too.

We understand and agree with Twitter’s position that “sometimes it may be in the public interest to allow people to view Tweets that would otherwise be taken down.” But Twitter’s own policy provides that the public interest exception is unlikely to apply if the Tweet in question promotes “terrorism / violent extremism” or “violence.”

There is also precedent for Twitter suspending the account of a current leader. Following the aftermath of the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, Twitter suspended President Donald Trump from its platform citing “the risk of further incitement of violence.”

And yet, Khamenei, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyyeh, and Louis Farrakhan - three of the most ardent Jew haters on social media - are still regularly posting on Twitter.

Considering how quickly Twitter rallied to create warnings for misleading information, disputed claims, and unverified claims about COVID-19, there is no excuse for condoning these messages of hate and violence.

In June 2020, Ice Cube went on a 10-day rant full of antisemitic Tweets; he thought he was quoting Hitler when he said that Jews plan to “extort America” and achieve “world domination.” Ice Cube has 5.6 million Twitter followers. There are only 7 million Jews in all of America.

On October 14, 2020, Twitter announced it would start removing posts that deny the Holocaust for violating its hateful conduct policy. “Attempts to deny or diminish” violent events, including the Holocaust, would be removed based on the company’s interpretation of the policy.

Fourteen days later, on October 28, 2020, in testimony before the U.S. Congress, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said that Twitter “[doesn’t] have a policy against that type of misleading information.” Twitter later issued a statement that such misinformation would be removed under its "Hateful Conduct" policy. To this day, disinformation and antisemitic content remains and flourishes on Twitter.

George Washington’s promise to American Jews is at risk:

“May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.”

Antisemitism is a fact of life on social media- but where's the outrage? While political leaders have certainly condemned recent violence and rhetoric against Jews, there's been no sustained, unified effort to remedy the situation. As Bret Stephens wrote: “It’s a curious silence. In the land of inclusiveness, Jews are denied inclusion.”

It’s time for Twitter to help stop the silence.