There is an interesting help wanted advert on Facebook’s main site for a fairly senior position:
Communications & Public Policy – Public Policy Manager (Menlo Park, CA – Washington, DC)
For me the following sentences jump out:
- You will be responsible for understanding and mitigating how hate groups and terrorist organizations attempt to utilize Facebook and Instagram.
- This includes closely tracking violating organizations and their messaging efforts.
- A professional understanding of contemporary militant groups is critical, as is the ability to work in both English and Arabic.
Notice which two languages are essential. A stark admission that in today’s world the only significant “hate groups and terrorist organisations” who use “Facebook and Instagram” on a regular basis are doing so in Arabic. We’ve written a lot here on Israellycool about Facebook’s problems with terrorist promotion and hate speech.
I’d be inclined to say there should be some other languages which are widely spoken in Muslim countries on the list, and for the specific purposes of classic, far-right Jew hatred, all the European languages are important. But clearly there is a specific global problem for Facebook with Arabic content.
This reminds me of a disastrous event shortly after 9-11 which is recounted by Paul Sperry (who has tracked the infiltration of the US Government by extremist Islamic groups for years and this appears in his book “Infiltration”):
A few weeks after Islamic terrorists toppled the World Trade Center, two FBI agents from the New York field office paid a visit to a Sephardic Jewish community center in Brooklyn. Their mission: recruit Arabic linguists to help interpret interviews and intercepts of Osama bin Laden’s network.
Sephardic Jews have lived in Arab countries and know the language, not to mention the culture and history of the region. And being close to Israel, the main target of Islamic terrorism, they were gung-ho to help the feds fight the war on terrorism here.
It was a good move, or so most involved thought at the time — and long overdue.
…
At the meeting, Yola Haber, who heads the agency’s employment division, says she agreed to help recruit Arabic-speaking Jews for the bureau. Most of them applied on-line for the translator jobs. All told, she says she referred some 90 applicants, possibly more, to the FBI. They included retired linguists who had experience working for Israeli radio in Arabic and for the Israeli army.
Remarkably, not one of them was hired.
“We sent them a lot of people, and nobody made it to the finish line,” complained Sephardic Bikur Holim director Doug Balin. “Not one person was found eligible for these jobs, which is outrageous.”
Instead, the FBI hired dozens of Arab-American Muslims as translators.
Wikileaks has also just revealed how the Obama administration actively rejected Middle East Christians for jobs, in favour of Muslims.
If any of Israellycool’s audience are reading this and have the necessary experience and skills, this would be an amazing job. Lets hope they don’t end up hiring someone with an inherent anti-Israel bias or a background in the left wing and BDS movements.
Here is the full text of the advert:
Communications & Public Policy
Public Policy Manager
(Menlo Park, CA – Washington, DC)Facebook was built to help people connect and share, and over the last decade our tools have played a critical part in changing how people around the world communicate with one another. With over a billion people using the service and more than fifty offices around the globe, a career at Facebook offers countless ways to make an impact in a fast growing organization.
Facebook is looking for an analytical thinker with experience in academia, business, or research to join our policy management team. You will be responsible for understanding and mitigating how hate groups and terrorist organizations attempt to utilize Facebook and Instagram. This includes closely tracking violating organizations and their messaging efforts. A successful candidate will have a multidisciplinary analytic background, the ability to identify broad trends, and be excited to delve into the details of understanding and mitigating propaganda networks employed by militant organizations.
A professional understanding of contemporary militant groups is critical, as is the ability to work in both English and Arabic. Candidates should be self-starters highly focused on measurable results; the ability to learn internal Facebook software tools is key. Sensitivity and appreciation for the global communities that use Facebook is mandatory.
This full time role is located in Washington, DC or Menlo Park, CA. The role will involve domestic and international travel.
h/t Tundra Tabloids
