Screenshot from Facebook. An anti-Semitism watchdog group is saying that their petition regarding the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is being censored by Change.org.
The petition, which was posted by Stop Anti-Semitism in March, calls for Attorney General William Barr and State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Elan Carr to investigate ties between CAIR – an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy Land Foundation trial involving Hamas financing – and members of Congress, specifically Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
Liora Rez, the executive director of Stop Anti-Semitism, told the Journal in a phone interview that she noticed earlier in the month that the petition was flagged by Change.org with a banner at the top of the page that reads, “Change.org has received flags from our users that the statements in this petition may be contested. You should consider researching this issue before signing or sharing.” Rez said that Change.org told her that this was because some of the content in the petition was “contested” and they asked for more information on the matter, which Rez says she provided. As of this writing, the petition is still flagged.
Additionally, Rez told the Journal that various people informed Stop Anti-Semitism that they couldn’t search for or sign the petition. Rez sent the following screenshot to the Journal as an example:
When the Journal searched for the petition on the Change.org’s search bar, the petition did not show up, although users can access the petition through a link. The option to sign the petition was there for the Journal.
The Zachor Legal Institute threatened legal action in an April 8 letter to Change.org if they didn’t take the restrictions off the petition. They argued that the petition doesn’t violate Change.org’s terms of service, which states that they only put restrictions on “hate speech, violence, impersonation, violation of privacy, bullying, graphic content, harm to children, spam and illegal acts.”
The institute also argued that Change.org is in violation of their terms of service, which states that they don’t put restrictions on petitions based on partisanship and viewpoints.
A spokesperson for Change.org provided the Journal with their response to the Zachor Legal Institute, which stated that while the petition doesn’t violate their terms, they have “taken steps to ensure users know we are aware of their concerns by including the banner at the top of the petition, disabled the comments feature, particularly in light of the many comments placed on the petition that violated our community guidelines, and limited the petition’s discovery on our platform.”
The response added that Change.org “turned off the ‘promotion’ facility on this petition,” which allows “users to chip in money to promote the campaigns they support to users who visit the site.” Change.org’s response also said that if any users are having trouble signing or sharing the petition, they should contact the organization’s support center.
“It doesn’t make sense because we’re not violating anything,” Rez told the Journal. “However, just because people might be uncomfortable with the topic, doesn’t necessarily mean they have a right to in essence, shadowban it or censor it in some way, which is exactly what’s happening.”
The petition has nearly 35,000 signatures.
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