LinkedIn has failed to remove some antisemitic posts from its platform despite receiving complaints from users.
Members of the professional network who flagged examples of racist posts were informed that certain messages do not breach the platform’s rules.
In one case, a member wrote on the site: “Basically it’s all about money… the Jews have cemented themselves into USA politics and business.”
When a user reported the post, they received a reply from LinkedIn saying it had reviewed the comment and “found it does not go against” its community policies.
Separately, a user who complained about a post that said “Jews/Zionists are pigs say the Qur’an [sic]” accompanied by an image of the said animal, was told this did not violate the site’s policies.
LinkedIn did remove two other images of “Jews as pigs”, campaign group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) said.
Another post referred to “Zionazi criminals on $tolen Palestinian land [sic]”. LinkedIn did not remove the post, but said the remark did not breach its rules and suggested the complainant unfollow or mute the user in question.
316314675 10159982242608557 1126925578031306353 n
One of the reported comments (Photo: LinkedIn)
The tech company, which has more than 900 million members, says it does not allow prejudicial or hateful comments against any racial or religious groups.
After being alerted to the posts by the JC, LinkedIn apologised for not removing them in the first instance, and took them down.
A spokesman said: "We’re deeply sorry we made a mistake initially, we know we won’t always get it right.
"If members wish to appeal LinkedIn’s content removal decisions, they can request a second review and provide the reasons they believe LinkedIn’s decision was not correct. If you need to."
UKLFI has written to LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, to ask the company to “improve its policy regarding anti-Israel and antisemitic content, and its mechanisms for removing such content”.
Caroline Turner, UKLFI director, said: “LinkedIn is a professional organisation for networking aimed at professionals.
“It therefore has more credibility than other social media outlets. While LinkedIn claims not to tolerate all forms of hate speech, it appears not to apply that standard to antisemitism.”
In the first six months of the year, 210 incidents of online antisemitism across various platforms were reported to the Community Security Trust (CST), according to the group, though the true number of incidents experienced is likely to be much higher.
After this story was published LinkedIn contacted the JC to say that the examples contained in the pice had already been removed, and that they were "deeply sorry" to have made a mistake initially.
