Talk about surreal.
Back in 2014, Aussie Dave wrote about a Palestinian thug rapper wannabe who sent me a threat of death and sexual assault over Facebook. It was a charming ditty, promising me I’d end up laying on the ground with a big whole in my “monkey butt” (bitch) for my Miley Cyrus parodies.
Suddenly, about three years later, YouTube removes the video, puts a strike on my account and tells me the video constitutes “hate speech”, specifically harassment and bullying. I tried to appeal, saying the video educates about “hate speech.” They upheld their decision. This was not long before Israellycool received strikes for its videos exposing Arab hate and incitement.
I asked my friend Avi Abelow, who runs the Israel Video Network, how this could be.
“I can send you all the material from YouTube and Facebook with their own terms basically being amorphous, but clear, that anything they disagree with will be shut down,” Abelow said. “Going public is the only thing to hurt their PR image, but I highly doubt it will make them change their direction. I call this the ‘post-Trump purge.’ Silicon Valley blame themselves for allowing information to be spread that allowed the masses to vote for Trump and they are doing all this to make sure their platforms (Google/YouTube/Facebook etc) are not used to make that happen again.”
Thankfully, we still have Vimeo. Vimeo came to my rescue when YouTube banned my Gaza Girls satire, “Kill All the Jews.” They even stood up for me when complaints came in. The video has been reposted there.
Death Threat Against Orit in Rap Form from Orit Arfa on Vimeo.
