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The social media giant Meta removed this week the Instagram account of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, which had a long track record of sharing pro-terrorism content online.
In recent months, the Antisemitism Research Center by CAM had documented content promoted by the John Jay SJP chapter that glorified, or presented sympathetically, U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations Hamas, Hezbollah, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), as well as Hamas’ murderous October 7th attack in Israel and other violent acts.
While dozens of SJP chapters in the United States have supported terrorism (including the October 7th massacre) in some capacity, the John Jay chapter stood out in its brazenness. Some chapters, for instance, have attempted to maintain plausible deniability by euphemistically backing “resistance” against Israel while avoiding explicit praise for Hamas. John Jay SJP had no such misgivings, indicating a disturbing level of radicalization.
Glorifying terrorism violates Meta’s community standards, and CAM diligently reported such content from John Jay SJP to Meta. CAM had also called on Meta to permanently suspend the chapter’s Instagram account due to its serial violations of Meta’s policies.
At the start of September, CAM CEO Sacha Roytman sent a letter — which can be read in full HERE — to John Jay College demanding the school’s SJP chapter be banned from campus. This call went unheeded, yet is even more pertinent now following Meta’s move.
