CBC Web site bars use of word 'Jewish'
National Post
Wed 10 Mar 2004
Page: A1 / Front
Section: News
Byline: Brian Hutchinson
Source: National Post
Internet users who post messages on a CBC Web site have launched complaints that the Crown corporation routinely removes the words "Jew," "Jewish" and "Israel" from network chat rooms devoted to online discussion of news events.
Meanwhile, vulgar expletives frequently appear on the same CBC discussion Web site. So do the words "Nazi" and "rabid Zionist."
Even the incendiary phrase "red-neck greedy selfish Alberto-centric money grubbing pig" passes muster with CBC censors, who use special software to seek and destroy postings containing words they have deemed "inappropriate."
People wishing to discuss Israel and issues that relate to the Jewish culture must disguise their messages, complains Roy Wilson, a Peterborough -based realtor who regularly visits the CBC's message boards.
"It's disgraceful," Mr. Wilson said. "If I want to initiate a serious dialogue about Israel, I have to modify the word. I have to type in 'Isr*el' or some such nonsense. If I don't change the word, my message won't go through. It is immediately filtered and it vanishes."
The word "Palestinian" is also auto-filtered from the CBC's message boards, but the words "Arab" and "Muslim" are not. "Christian" is not filtered. Neither are the words "Buddhist" and "Hindu."
No one at the CBC was available yesterday to explain. The person responsible for monitoring the CBC's message boards did not reply to e-mail queries.
Those complaining about the censorship say their concerns have been ignored.
A New York-based attorney who posts frequently said the CBC began filtering the words "Jew," "Jewish" and "Israel" last year, after one of its message boards, devoted to Middle East issues, was deluged with anti-Semitic and anti-Palestinian comments.
But such postings have not ceased entirely. "I've been called a 'rabid Zionist,'" said the attorney, who posts under the handle JBG. "But if I decide to respond, even in the nicest, most polite way, I can't use the word 'Jew.' And I am a Jew. I have to make up a word instead. It's absurd."
To prove his point, JBG attempted yesterday to post the following message on a CBC message board:
"As the Jewish festival of Purim closes, I believe it is essential for the world to understand what it means. It isa joyous holiday, celebrating the triumph of the Judeans over Haman, an evil dictator. Israel has on numerous occasions [sic] supplied the world with what should be occasions for rejoicing. It has triumphed over tyrants such as Hafez Assad of Syria and Idi Amin of Uganda. Those triumphs, rather than being celebrated, are roundly condemned."
The message did not make it past the CBC's auto-filtering system. JBG then substituted "Juwish" for "Jewish," and "Isr@el" for Israel. His post was accepted immediately.
According to the CBC's own guidelines, posters may not launch personal attacks against others; ethnic, and racial slurs are expressly forbidden. "Posts containing inappropriate words will be caught in an automatic word filter for screening," the guidelines note.
But even a cursory search of the CBC's message boards turns up dozens of violations. Some offending posts have sat on the CBC's Web site for months.
For example, the word "frog" is frequently used on CBC message boards to describe French-Canadians. In December, a poster using the handle QCLIBRE wrote that "Canadians will not paid [sic] for bilingualist and Quebec French frogs again."
The word "dyke" is regularly used on the CBC forum to dismiss certain prominent Canadian women, among them a senior CBC television personality.
The racial slur "Chinaman" has also been successfully posted. "What do you get when you cross a Chinaman with a Rabbi?" one frequent contributor joked last May. His post is still contained in the CBC message board files.
Anti-Americanism is common. Masturbation comes up now and then. The full range of curse words appear, from "prick" to much worse. Almost anything goes, said Mr. Wilson. "Someone can log on to a CBC board and accuse me of being a child molester, which has actually happened, and that will get posted," noted Mr. Wilson. "And unless I launch a complaint, it will stay posted."
No one will explain why the CBC tends to filter words related to Israel and Judaism have gone ignored, the Web site posters say.
"It seems to me that the CBC is using technology to bias the message boards against literate, pro-Israel opinion," said JBG.
Roy Wilson senses a bias as well. A person can use the boards to discredit another person, and say the vilest things, "and yet I can't post the name of one specific country, and one specific religion? I pay for this service with my tax dollars, and I don't like the way it's being run. I'm incensed."
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Siri Agrell
National Post
Thursday, March 11, 2004
The CBC filters the words "Jewish" and "Israel" from its Internet message boards to protect against anti-Semitism, according to an official with the public broadcaster.
"This isn't for anything other than to impede anti-Semitism," said Claude Galipeau, executive director of CBC new media.
Some regular visitors to the message boards have complained that the words "Jew," "Jewish" and "Israel" were being filtered while "Muslim," "Hindu" and "Christian" were not.
Even such obviously defamatory terms as "Nazi" and "rabid Zionist" were visible on the Web site message boards.
Mr. Galipeau said the decision to filter words relating to Israel and Judaism came after specific incidents of defamatory and hateful speech were posted on the site.
He said the word "Palestinian" is also filtered because of defamatory remarks made in postings debating the Middle East conflict.
The site filters postings for "trigger words," he said, and sends them into a queue where they are read by a CBC moderator to make sure they are not offensive or inflammatory.
If the words are being used appropriately, the message is posted, he said, although there is a delay before that happens.
"It's a balancing act between providing a voice for Canadians online and not allowing abuses," Mr. Galipeau said.
"It is true that the filters we employ can place benign messages into the moderator's queue along with the abusive messages; it is true that those who wish to have their posts appear immediately can find ways to trick the filter by ... altering the trigger words so that the posting can pass through the filter without review by the moderator; and it is true that some objectionable material, despite our best efforts, can slip through," Mr. Galipeau wrote in a letter to the Post yesterday.
Some message-board users were not buying the CBC's rationale for filtering words related to Judaism.
"I think it's a cop-out," said Ray Wilson, a regular user of the message boards who has tried to initiate discussions on Israel only to have his postings filtered.
The Peterborough resident said he did not know why the CBC would filter Jewish words, but another visitor to the site said he believes the CBC "is using technology to bias the message boards against literate, pro-Israel opinion."
