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Legacy NTC Campaigns

Tell Facebook to End Its Censorship Double Standards

On September 13, 2021, Jeff Horwitz of the Wall Street Journal broke news of massive institutional double standards at Facebook, resulting in one set of terms of service enforcement for celebrities, professional athletes, and other public figures, and a different set of standards for everyone else. The social media giant’s “XCheck” system, as it is called internally at Facebook, “has protected public figures whose posts contain harassment or incitement to violence, violations that would typically lead to sanctions for regular users,” Horowitz revealed in his exposé. Intra-company reviews of the policy determined that Facebook’s preferential treatment of elites “found favoritism to those users to be both widespread and ‘not publicly defensible.’” Facebook must end its censorship double standards and stop treating elites differently than everyone else. The XCheck system, according to the Wall Street Journal report, was created in order to help Facebook avoid “PR fires” — essentially, for the sake of avoiding negative press, the standards of enforcement for what constitutes unacceptable content are much lower for those in Facebook’s secret club of VIPs. For the masses of everyday users of Facebook, no such special consideration is given. Ordinary users can have posts censored and deleted automatically by Facebook’s algorithm or taken down by moderators. Once that happens, the avenues for appeal are few. Responding to the Wall Street Journal piece, Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone issued a thread on Twitter that sought to explain XCheck as a reasonable system that allowed the social media platform to double-check posts from certain pages and people before taking action against them. In so doing, he underscored the fact that Facebook does, indeed, have two sets of standards for the enforcement of its policies. Send CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook a message: double standards that allow the privileged elite to get away with activity that gets everyday users banned is unacceptable. Add your voice to the New Tolerance Campaign petition!

Legacy NTC Campaigns

More than 600 Activists Demanded a Diplomatic Boycott of The Olympics

More than 600 NTC advocates signed a petition to Secretary of State Tony Blinken demanding a diplomatic boycott of the 2o22 Olympics in Bejing, China. The International Olympic Committee claims to have a “Human Rights Strategy,” but has been silent on China’s violently oppressive regime and its ongoing genocide against its own people. Absent IOC action, the United States needs to take the lead. Bipartisan support for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Games already exists — even Nancy Pelosi has declared her support for this approach. Addressing a potential boycott when testifying to the House Foreign Affairs Committee last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there will be “more on that in weeks to come.” Thanks to your efforts, a diplomatic boycott was enacted, showing Bejining we will not tolerate oppression.

Legacy NTC Campaigns

Over 3,600 told Major League Baseball to stop the woke hypocrisy involved in moving the Atlanta All Star Game

Major League Baseball (MLB) withdrew the 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta to protest a new election law passed by the Georgia legislature in a clear example of hypocritical corporate virtue-signaling. Like the NBA (which reconsidered a past All-Star game in North Carolina), MLB hypocritically protested a US state for democratically-passed legislation while coddling the Chinese government as it commits genocide against Muslim minorities. Indeed, MLB is a partner with the government-owned Beijing Real-Estate Group Limited in developing dozens of new baseball facilities in China. MLB is formally engaged with this dictatorial government that allows NO democratic elections, brutally represses democracy in Hong Kong, and commits ethnic cleansing against Muslims. Yet MLB is silent on China. If MLB is going to affirm its values in Georgia, the league must apply those values consistently. Why give a pass to the Chinese government for its despicable human rights violations?  Are respect and inclusion reserved for Americans only? Or is selective outrage just another marketing gimmick to sell tickets? MLB’s double standard leaves Georgians feeling singled out, victims in China feeling hopelessly ignored, and fans wondering where the league really stands. Over 3,600 NTC activists sent messages, but sadly, the MLB didn’t budge.

Legacy NTC Campaigns

Victory! USD Law Stopped Attacking Prof. Tom Smith for Criticizing the Chinese Government

After nearly 700 of you sent emails, the University of San Diego (USD) Law School has formally dropped a disciplinary investigation of a professor after falsely accusing him of spreading anti-Asian sentiment on campus. On March 10, Professor Tom Smith published a post on his personal blog about China’s handling of COVID-19 that includes the sentence: “If you believe that the coronavirus did not escape from the lab in Wuhan, you have to at least consider that you are an idiot who is swallowing whole a lot of Chinese cock swaddle.” Smith was clearly referring to the Chinese Government, not people of Chinese descent. His statement may be crude and controversial, but not racist. Yet USD responded by sending out a statement decrying the blog post’s “bias” and “disparaging language,” lumping it in with “harassment… epithets, derogatory comments, or slurs based on race or national origin.” It then launched an investigation into his actions. Nearly two months later, USD Law dropped the investigation, and Provost Gail F. Baker released the following statement: As a threshold matter, we sought to determine whether the blog post at issue was protected by our policy on academic freedom. After a thorough legal review, it was determined that the expression was protected by that policy. This conclusion in no way amounts to an endorsement by the university of the opinions shared in the blog post. Academic freedom lies at the core of the mission of the University of San Diego. At the same time, we are committed to providing an educational environment that honors the dignity of every individual. Those two commitments can and must co-exist.  The New Tolerance Campaign is glad to see that USD Law ultimately came to the right decision and proud of the activists who helped make it happen. However, USD’s decision to attack Prof. Smith and label his comments racist was unacceptable in the first place, especially for an institution training future lawyers and judges. The NTC team will keep a close eye on USD moving forward to ensure they uphold their stated principles of academic freedom.

Legacy NTC Campaigns

NTC Advocates Held Twitter Accountable For Verifying A Hitler-Praising Journalist

Update: When Twitter failed to follow its own account suspension policies, NTC grassroots advocates took action. They sent countless emails to CEO Jack Dorsey demanding that Twitter follow their own rules and stop giving Adeel Raja a prominent place on their platform to promote hate and violence.  Yet again, Twitter failed to follow its own policies on account suspension, this time giving a pass to a reporter who has repeatedly praised Hitler and called for others to continue his murder of the Jews. On May 16 as the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinians continued, CNN freelance contributor Adeel Raja used his verified “Blue Check” account to tweet, “The world today needs a Hitler.” This vile tweet prompted other Twitter users to discover that Raja has been using the platform to spew pro-Hitler bile for years. “Hail Hitler!” Raja declared in July of 2014. “The only reason I am supporting Germany in the finals — Hitler was a German and he did good with those Jews!” he wrote that same year. CNN has since publicly cut ties with Raja, but Twitter continues to allow him to push his anti-Jewish hate with the added benefit of his verified status. Raja deleted the tweets, but then doubled down a day later, tweeting on May 17: “Glad a single tweet contributed to the #Palestine cause and brought it to limelight with me loosing [sic] my job and the West’s claim of Freedom of expression and human rights!” In the past, Twitter has removed verified (“Blue Check”) status, suspended, and even de-platformed accounts entirely that the social media site has deemed to promote hate. Their own rules and policies state that Twitter prohibits “content that wishes, hopes, promotes, incites, or expresses a desire for death, serious bodily harm, or serious disease against an entire protected category and/or individuals who may be members of that category.” For Twitter users, the selective enforcement of the platform’s “hateful conduct” policy has created mass confusion about what is and is not considered acceptable speech—but if wishing for another Hitler in this world does not meet that criteria, what does!? It’s been 76 years since the end of World War II, but for those still living who survived the Holocaust, as well as the families of those who did not, the pain of Adolf Hitler’s evil is still very real. Providing a stage for Adeel Raja to hope for a second Hitler—and the authoritative limelight that comes with a verified account—is beyond the pale.

Legacy NTC Campaigns

Over 1,000 NTC Advocates Emailed NBA Commissioner Asking Him to Take the NBA All-Star Game Out of China

n 2017 the NBA removed its All-Star Game from North Carolina in the name of inclusiveness and diversity. But, as a league, the NBA has remained silent on the Chinese Communist Party’s human rights abuses, including placing Uyghur Muslims in internment camps, mass surveillance, repression of religion, and more. Over 1,000 NTC advocates emailed the NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, asking him to be consistent in his approach to “respect” and “inclusion.” NTC still wants to know… Are respect and inclusion reserved for Americans only? Or will the NBA sacrifice its values if the price is right?

Legacy NTC Campaigns

NTC Advocates Sent Nearly 10,000 Emails to Jersey City Board of Education Calling for Antisemite To Resign

Jersey City Jewish students should not have to be concerned that the officials running their schools view them as “brutes” or deserving of violent attacks, but that’s just what former Jersey City Board of Education member Joan Terrell-Paige did. Terrell-Paige made brazenly anti-Semitic comments in response to the December 10th, 2019  shooting at a kosher market in Greenville, NJ. Two shooters killed a police officer and three others in the attack which authorities said was “fueled by both anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs.”   NTC advocates sent nearly 10,000 emails to the Jersey City Board of Education, and after our campaign started, Jersey City mayor Fulop called out Terrell-Paige’s antisemitism. NTC is proud to see our efforts having an impact, and we will continue confronting bigotry and tolerance hypocrisy.

Legacy NTC Campaigns

More than 3,600 Activists Emailed Disney Saying Firing Gina Carano is NOT the WAY

More than 3,600 Activists Emailed Disney Saying Firing Gina Carano is NOT the WAY. Disney fired Gina Carano from her role in the Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian over an Instagram post comparing the treatment of conservatives to the Jews during the Holocaust – yet took no action to similarly hyperbolic Holocaust analogies from Carano’s co-star Pedro Pascal. In a now-deleted Instagram post, Carano argued that “to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” In response, Disney-owned Lucasfilm released a statement saying that Carano was not an employee and would never again be in the future, adding: “Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” Her post does not ‘denigrate’ anyone. Furthermore, Disney met a similarly hyperbolic Holocaust analogy tweeted by her Mandalorian co-star Pedro Pascal – comparing ICE detention facilities to Nazi concentration camps – with silence. Disney has not clarified why it holds her to a different standard than her co-star – or the many Disney-affiliated individuals have compared Donald Trump to Hitler without repercussions. Furthermore, Disney openly partners with a government currently committing genocide against a vulnerable minority. The credits of Disney’s recent live-action film Mulan express “special thanks” to several government entities in Xinjiang, where the Chinese government imprisons citizens in brutal camps because of their Muslim beliefs. Ironically, the company’s over-the-top response seems to validate Carano’s warning about turning neighbors into enemies.

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