Seven sorry for Facebook comments

CHANNEL Seven has apologised to the Jewish community and removed a post from its Facebook page which contained several vile anti-Israel and anti-Semitic comments, including one lamenting the fact that Hitler left some Jews alive.

The post on the 7 News Australia Facebook page last week attracted more than 700 comments.

Among them were “I blame Hitler also he left few to breed”; “I will be more than happy to send my kids out to kill those dogs cause 65 years of them taking over my country and killing our kids and rapping our women is enough!!”; “may the horror israel inflicts on them comes back onto the israeli pigs tenfold”; and “Channel 7 you dogs show the real story hope Israel burns” (sic).

A Seven spokesperson told The AJN this week its online team “actively moderates” public comments posted on the 7 News Australia Facebook page and removes anything deemed violent, obscene, abusive, discriminatory or racist.

“Due to the high volume of posts on the Facebook page, a small number of undesirable comments are occasionally unintentionally overlooked in the process, or there is a slight delay in taking them down,” the spokesperson said.

“We have since removed the post and apologise for any upset that may have been caused to members of the Jewish community.”

B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich urged all media giants to put in place mechanisms to monitor posts and prevent their powerful social networks being used to promote racist speech.

“At a time of a dramatic rise in intolerance against the Jewish community and other minorities, and the campaign to radicalise and recruit young people, we need to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to this burgeoning threat and to cancerous hate speech and incitement,” he said.

EVAN ZLATKIS