While Parisian protests over Israel's operation in Gaza descend into violence and clashes, the internet has seen an explosion of hate speech related to the conflict. French law bans racist, anti-Semitic or discriminatory messages, but moderators have been hard-pressed to keep up with the rise in hateful comments.
Representatives from companies that monitor online content told AFP that they normally block 25 to 40 percent of comments, but since the Israeli incursion this statistic has shot up to up to 95 percent. They say the nature of the online hate comments is very specific to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as both parties seek to monopolize websites with their hate messages.
"On the pro-Palestinian side, identical messages are posted on dozens of sites. On the pro-Israeli side, there are fewer messages but they are better organized," said Jeremie Mani, head of Madagascar-based company Netino that trawls through millions of comments every month. "This sickening content is peculiar to this conflict. The war in Syria does not trigger these kinds of comments."
Comment: The pro-Israeli comments are 'better organized' because they are in all likelihood posted by Hasbara trolls, who have a well-manufactured propaganda template from which to work.
Apparently the comments are not just restricted to subjects related to the conflict. Mani said offense dialogue on the issue even cropped up in an article about the Tour de France and in another about salmon fishing.
Comment: If the comments are increasingly 'hateful', that is because Israel's conduct is increasingly egregious and inspires powerful emotions in people who value justice and humanity. The world is turning against Israel. Meanwhile, world leaders are just following the Israeli party line, which only frustrates the people even more.