AMAN wins right to hold Twitter to account over ‘hateful’ content

For open-air mass Taraweeh prayers for American Muslims, it was Times Square in New York. Its Australian equivalent was held in Haldon Street, Lakemba where thousands of men and women from all over Sydney gathered on Wednesday 19 April, for a historic night of prayer in conjunction with Lakemba markets Festival “Ramadan Nights”.

The unprecedented occasion was organised by the Canterbury Bankstown Council in partnership with Masjid As-Sunnah Lakemba for the 29th night of Ramadan. It was the largest Taraweeh prayer ever held in Australia.

“Peace be onto you, brothers and sisters. Dear guests, welcome to the heart of beautiful and peaceful Australia. Australia is Sydney and Sydney is Lakemba and Lakemba is Haldon St where we are all gathering tonight,” Sheikh Abdul Salam Zoud greeted the crowd.

The event took place on Haldon St, which is transformed into a month-long global food bazaar during Ramadan, welcoming tens of thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims.

The proceedings began with Isha prayer and were followed by Taraweeh prayers.

In the middle of the Taraweeh prayers, Sheikh Abu Bakr Zoud delivered a short talk about the meaning of Ramadan and fasting.

After Taraveeh prayers, Councillor Bilal El-Hayek delivered a short message saying, “Tonight, Alhumdullilah, this is history in the making.”

He spoke about how he convinced the Council to do hold this Taraveeh prayer saying, “We have to do this, this is what the community wants. We’re there as the voice of the people and by the will of Allah, we managed to deliver this to the community.”

The event was a huge success, and social media was flooded with positive comments.

“Jazak Allahu khayrun for all your efforts and the efforts of Sheikh Abu Bakr, council, and community. Definitely the most beautiful and heartwarming sight to see. We hope more of these nights are possible next Ramadan,” commented Eman Roumieh Sanoussi. Another Facebook user, Ahmad Darwiche, said, “This is Islam at its finest Hamdiallah and May Allah (SWT) guide us all.” Even non-Muslims were moved by the event, as Jakallini Tbath wrote, “I’m an atheist, but this looks like a hugely moving event.”

Twitter’s attempt to dismiss a complaint by the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network (AMAN) over hateful content on their platform has been rejected by the Queensland Human Rights Commission (QHRC).

AMAN had accused Twitter Australia and Twitter Inc of failing to act against accounts that incite hatred. AMAN lodged the complaint under Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act, alleging Twitter’s responsibility as a publisher of third-party accounts and its discrimination for refusing to act against hateful content.

In its complaint, AMAN cited as an example a far-right account that has been referred to in the manifesto of a white supremacist and mass murderer. The platform had repeatedly refused to delete the account or take down replies to its posts which refer to the Qur’an as “the terrorist handbook” and to Islam as “the most violent and sexually perverse cult”.

The complaint to the commission also contained 419 items, including 29 tweets which AMAN contends incited hatred and 390 comments and quotes on those tweets.

Twitter argued the complaint should be dismissed as it does not host, operate, or control the Twitter service – which is controlled by Twitter Inc., but the QHRC disagreed and referred the matter to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal for jurisdiction.

The QHRC did not agree with Twitter that the complaint was “misconceived or lacking in substance” and questioned Twitter’s claims that the state’s legislation does not apply to them. “A foreign person is not immune from [the] application of Queensland legislation in respect of things that occur in Queensland,” a QHRC officer said. “The service is available and operates within Queensland and as such, it is likely to be required [to] comply with Queensland legislation.”

AMAN said Twitter’s approach “contradicts” the position put forward by Twitter Inc’s chief executive, Elon Musk, at February’s world government summit in Dubai.

“Social media companies should adhere to the laws of countries, and not try to put a thumb on the scale beyond the laws of countries,” Musk said at the summit.

“I think that the general idea is to reflect the values of the people as opposed to imposing the values of, essentially San Francisco and Berkley, which are somewhat of a niche ideology as compared to the rest of the world.”

Community groups like AMAN have been forced to bring one legal action after another to assert their right to live free from discrimination.

This case will address the issue of social media companies’ liability for content published on their platforms and whether it is discriminatory for them not to uphold local standards.

Read the full article at the Guardian Australia.