Facebook and Instagram owner Meta said it would start removing more posts that targets "Zionists", a term that refers to Jewish and Israeli people instead of representing supporters of political movements.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Meta said it had found "Zionists" being used to refer to Jews and Israelis with calls for harm, dehumanising comparison, and/or denial of existence, so they will remove such content targeting Zionists.
The social media giant said its hate speech policy prohibits people from attacking others on the platforms based on their protected characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, disability, and gender identity, among others.
It said it treated "Zionists" as a proxy word for Jewish or Israeli people in two narrow circumstances, where Zionists are compared to rats, reflecting known antisemitic imagery, and where context makes clear that "Zionist" means "Jew" or "Israeli" -- which was not enough.
"Going forward, we will remove content attacking 'Zionists' when it is not explicitly about the political movement, but instead uses antisemitic stereotypes, or threatens other types of harm through intimidation, or violence directed against Jews or Israelis under the guise of attacking Zionists," Meta said.
The policy update comes amid the Israel-Hamas war which has been on since last October.
The company has long been criticised for how it handled content involving the Middle East, with civil rights groups accusing it of suppressing content that is pro-Palestine on Instagram and Facebook.
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