At 9am this morning, the JC joined the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate campaign by walking out of Twitter and Instagram for 48 hours.
Both sites actively promote antisemitism. We say that because they consistently take the conscious decision not to delete those accounts which push Jew hate. That both enables and promotes Jew hate.
Last week, the grime artist Wiley spent 2 days posting a non-stop series of unambiguously antisemitic tweets. In one he called for Jews to "hold some corn" - a slang expression meaning to be shot. Twitter's response has been to allow almost all the tweets to remain on the site and to suspend him for a short period - after which he will of course be free to resume posting his hatred of Jews.
For many this was the straw which broke the camel's back. On Saturday morning, a small group conceived the idea of a 48 hour walk out from Twitter and Instagram (where Wiley continued to post his hatred) to highlight the issue and to start a campaign for the sites to take action against such tweets.
That campaign will of course include the demand for social media sites to act against all forms of race hate.
Within less than 48 hours the #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate walk out has become the Number 1 trending hashtag on Twitter and has been supported by Cabinet ministers, world renowned writers, performers and - most importantly - a mass of people sickened by the hate that Twitter and Instagram allow on their sites.
The JC is proud to support the walk out - and appalled that we have to.