Meta, the owner of social networks Facebook and Instagram, has revised the regulations on the Zionist word as part of the rules to avoid hate speech. Until now, measures contrary to the Zionist word, which expressly referred to the Jews or the Israelis in general, have already been included in the legislation, but it is now going to censure more widely the insults against the Zionists.

It is common for Metak to erase publications when attacking a person from “protected characteristics” such as citizenship, race, religion, or gender identity. Meta accepts to criticise the political movements and said that it will still allow them to oppose Zionism, understood as the political movement to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. However, Meta has pointed out that people use the Zionist term to refer to Jews or Israelis in a broader way. With his final decision, Meta has blurred the boundary between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

The problem is to distinguish when the word “Zionist” means “Jew” or “Israeli” and when the political movement. So far, only two specific cases have been considered as substitutes. On the one hand, when they compared Zionists with rats, “using the well-known anti-Semitic imaginary,” according to Meta. On the other hand, when the context made it clear that the Zionist term referred to Jews or Israelis, a phrase has been set as an example. “Today the Jews celebrate the Jewish Passover. I hate those Zionists.”

Now Meta says that people often criticize “without direct reference to protected characteristics”, but that “it can be understood that they refer to those characteristics”. From now on, in some cases where there are no direct references, they will also be recognised as “Zionists” and “Jews” or “Israelis”.

Publications using the Zionist word will be removed, as you have said, when there is a threat of harm through intimidation or when violence against Zionists is promoted. One of the reasons will be to deny the existence of Zionists or to establish “dehumanizing comparisons” with Zionists, for example, when they are said to be “leeks” or “a plague”. We will have to see how many anti-Zionist speeches Meta is going to censure using this last change as an argument.

Several sources have denounced that Meta limits the dissemination of many of the words used by the Palestinians or directly erases the publications when the words "colonies", "settlers" or "occupation" are used. On the other hand, reports by human rights organisations have shown that this regulation does not apply when it is applied against the Palestinians, when the Israelis are calling in Hebrew for the destruction of the Palestinians.