#NOSAFESPACEFORJEWHATE – WALKOUT ON TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM IN RESPONSE TO WILEY’S ANTISEMITIC RANT

British grime artist Wiley posted a series of antisemitic tweet on July 24th. In his tweets, broadcasted to nearly half a million followers, Wiley claimed that Jewish people control business, an antisemitic trope which has been used to catastrophic results in the past, and compared Jewish people to the Ku Klux Klan: “There are 2 sets of people who nobody has really wanted to challenge #Jewish & #KKK but being in business for 20 years you start to undestand [sic] why … Red Necks Are the KKK and Jewish people are the Law...Work that out.” He continued: “If you work for a company owned by 2 Jewish men and you challenge the Jewish community in anyway of course you will get fired.”

After Wiley’s initial antisemitic tweets on Friday the 24th, he was banned from posting on Twitter for a few hours. However, on the morning of the 25th he tweeted that he was “back in action” and then continued posting antisemitic content. A few hours later he posted a screenshot on Instagram showing that he had been blocked from posting on Twitter for 7 days. Many have criticised Twitter for not taking appropriate action on the case. While some of Wiley’s posts have now been deleted, others are still visible on his account. Some of this content still up on Twitter included Wiley referring to Jewish people as “cowards” and “snakes”.

To show their disappointment in Twitter lack of action on the case, many organisations and public figures have staged a ‘walkout’ on Twitter and Instagram. The protest has been promoted using the hashtag #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate. "You choose to allow it on here. So we say: #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate," said Stephen Pollard editor of The Jewish Chronicle. From 9am on Monday 27th July, participating individuals and organisations stayed silent on the platforms. Get The Trolls Out has participated in this walkout - we believe hate speech like antisemitism should not be given any room on platforms like Twitter and Instagram, and these platforms need to take concrete action to avoid such incidents from happening in the future. Get The Trolls Out British partner Media Diversity Institute has also participated in the walkout. After the 48 hour period of silence, the Get The Trolls Out social media accounts will be used again for spreading awareness and information on the fight against hate speech.