UPDATED: Facebook removes JDL Canada’s page, calls group ‘dangerous’

JDL Canada logo

For the second time in a month, Facebook took down the page of the Jewish Defence League of Canada, citing its “community standards” policy on “dangerous organizations.”

The social media giant removed the JDL’s Facebook page earlier this month.

The JDL believed it was because of its well-known logo, a raised fist silhouetted on a yellow Star of David.

Within days, the JDL put up a new page, with a new logo.

But on Feb. 15, Facebook took down that page, too.

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Also taken down on Feb. 15 was the public group page “Jewish Defence League of Canada.”

Both JDL pages “are not allowed to be on Facebook, so they were correctly removed,” Facebook spokesperson Meg Sinclair told The CJN via email.

She sent a link to Facebook’s “community standards” and its section on “dangerous organizations,” which states that it does not allow “any organizations that are engaged in the following to have a presence on Facebook: terrorist activity, or organized criminal activity.

“We also remove content that expresses support for groups that are involved in the violent or criminal behaviour mentioned above,” the policy states.

Sinclair did not reply to a follow-up question on why Facebook considers the JDL in Canada a dangerous organization.

Still on Facebook as of Feb. 16 were public group pages for “Jewish Defence League Alberta,” “Jewish Defense League Chicago” and “Jewish Defence League New Zealand.”

At the same time as the first JDL page was taken down, Weinstein’s personal Facebook account was suspended for 30 days because, he said, he had re-posted an anti-Semitic threat he had received.

The accounts of several JDL page administrators were also suspended for a few days.

“We obviously strongly disagree with [Facebook’s] definition,” Weinstein told The CJN, “and we’ll going to deal with it in a legal manner. We’re going to be getting a lawyer involved.”

He said he’s also considering a human rights complaint.

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In the United States, the FBI branded the JDL a “right-wing terrorist group.” No such designation has occurred in Canada.

Weinstein said the JDL’s old page was visited “thousands” of times a day and generated ad revenue.

He said administrators were building the new page just as it, too, was scrubbed.

“We’re a target of people who don’t like what we stand for,” he said, adding he believes Facebook has an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias.