Telling a Jewish woman she is “dirty” and “ready for the oven” is not a breach of Twitter’s rules prohibiting abuse, the social media company has said.
Labour MP Cat Smith is among those condemning Twitter for not acting on abuse sent to Rhea Wolfson, who sits on the party’s governing body the NEC.
Wolfson posted a screengrab of the abuse and Twitter’s response, where it said it “could not determine a clear violation of the Twitter Rules around abusive behaviour”.
She asked: “What the hell is a violation of your rules then?”
Smith tweeted: “Really Twitter!?!? I think you probably want to look at this again. No space for anti-Semitism.”
Left-wing journalist Owen Jones described this and another example of abuse someone else shared as “fucking nauseating”.
Twitter’s rules on abuse say: “In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we do not tolerate behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.”
It cites “violent threats”, “harassment” and “hateful conduct” as examples of abuse it does not tolerate.
Twitter did not comment on how the abuse sent to Wolfson did not breach the rules.
“We don’t comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons,” a spokesman said.
Wolfson said she did not believe the person who sent her abuse was anything to do with Labour, which is currently in the grips of row over whether anti-Semitism is on the rise within its ranks.
