Jewish Internet Defense Force

The Jewish Internet Defense Force (JIDF) was an organization that used social media to mobilize support for campaigns against websites and Facebook groups that promote or praise what it described as Islamic terrorism or antisemitism. The group's website described the JIDF as a "private, independent, non-violent protest organization representing a collective of activists". The JIDF's work has been termed "hacktivism" by the BBC and Haaretz. According to the JIDF, the organization "formed as a grassroots effort in 2000, to mount mass e-mail campaigns, in response to the outbreak of the Second Intifada." The website was run by a person who identified himself as "David Appletree." According to a reporter from The Jewish Week in 2009 he "will not say if that is his true surname". In the same article, Appletree accused Facebook administrators of antisemitism for closing down his account. A Facebook spokesperson replied that the account was terminated because the website did not believe he was using his real name, which is a breach of Facebook's "real name culture". Appletree went on to say that he maintains approximately 40 Facebook groups focused on combating terrorism and antisemitism. A since deleted post on the group's website said they "specifically target hateful material or material which blatantly promotes hatred or violence, no matter where it can be found." The "About" page of the website says "We believe in direct action both to eradicate the problems we face online and to create the publicity that will cause those with companies like Facebook and Google to take the needed action themselves." The group focused its attention on websites like Facebook, YouTube, Google Earth, and Wikipedia. The JIDF redirected anti-Israel Facebook groups to other pages it preferred and changed the names of Muslim members of such groups to "Mossad collaborator," among other actions. A website spokesman told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that they don't break any laws and that the JIDF "prefers the terms 'seize control,' 'take over' or 'infiltrate' rather than 'hack to describe there actions.