Racist and anti-Semitic posts left on the google reviews page of two leading Jewish community institutions by one person appear to have been ignored by the tech giant.
The vicious troll posted a cruel fake review of Bondi’s Central Synagogue in mid 2020, then another of The Sydney Jewish Museum in January which appeared to deny the Holocaust.
Appalled members of the Jewish community contacted Google asking them to delete the ugly reviews in the past two weeks – but they still appear on their page.
The disgusting reviews of two prominent Jewish institutions are still online despite being posted nine months and four months ago
The Sydney Jewish Museum was targeted online by the cowardly troll
‘Didn’t like it. Smelled like fish and tears. Defo wouldn’t go back,’ said the first review, of The Central Synagogue.
The synagogue is a place of daily worship and has a long history in Sydney, beginning in 1913.
The fake review of The Sydney Jewish Museum read: ‘I couldn’t get tickets to the comedy festival so I went here instead.
‘Had a great time, funniest stuff I’ve seen in a long time. The actors were great, you could see they almost believed the lies they were telling.
’12/10 would defo visit again’.
The Sydney Jewish Museum was established in 1992 by the generation of Holocaust survivors who came to Australia.
A statement given to Daily Mail Australia said: ‘As the grandson of Holocaust survivors, including a grandmother who was sent to Auschwitz, I am hurt by the fact that Google would choose to keep racist, anti-Semitic content online for ten days after being alerted to it by numerous people.
‘The fact that fact that after being brought to Google’s attention it remains online is inexcusable.’
He wished to remain anonymous.
It has been claimed four separate attempts were made to contact Google, in addition to Daily Mail Australia’s request for comment to the net titan.
The posts appear to be clear breaches of several aspects of Google policies.
The most obvious relates to Google Help Communities prohibited content policy surrounding hate speech.
Bondi’s Central Synagogue was the troll’s first target with a cruel fake review
Dvir Abramovich, of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said Google must not get a ‘free pass’ for allowing anti-Jewish posts and being slow to act
It says: ‘We don’t allow the promotion of hatred toward groups of people based on their race, ethnic origin or nationality, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or affiliation with any other protected group.’
The posts are also arguably illegal.
The commonwealth has prosecuted public Holocaust denials under racial vilification and hate speech laws, even though Holocaust denial is not a crime per se.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission called out Google saying it had dropped the ball and ‘must do more’.
The Sydney Jewish Museum was established in 1992 by the generation of Holocaust survivors who came to Australia
‘The fact that this keeps happening is unacceptable and it is clear that Google must do more in enforcing best practises to respond to this growing problem.’
‘[Google] will not get a free pass if their pages are flooded by anti-Jewish posts and they are slow to remove them.’
‘It is our hope that following this incident, Google will have the good sense to implement better monitoring systems, and to remove such ugly posts immediately before they are viewed by more users and spread virally across the net.’
‘We all have to take seriously our responsibility to foster civility and respect in the online sphere.’
Daily Mail Australia contacted The Sydney Jewish Museum, The Central Synagogue and Google for comment.
