Microsoft Sued for Scourge of Anti-Semitic Content on Search Engine

Lawfare Project files a libel lawsuit against the computer giant after it fails to act on warnings about anti-Semitic content on its search engine.

By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel

Microsoft is being sued for failing to change its Bing search engine to remove anti-Semitic material, the New York City-based action group The Lawfare Project announced Friday.

The Lawfare Project is providing legal support to two Spanish Jews who filed a lawsuit in Spain against Microsoft Corporation for violating Spanish hate laws and failing to block the illegal racist and defamatory search results from its Bing search engine.

“At a time of increased scrutiny on Big Tech companies and the role they play in the spread of dangerous misinformation, anti-Semitic content is still allowed to run rampant online,” said Brooke Goldstein, Executive Director of The Lawfare Project.

Goldstein noted that a search done on Bing “will readily yield results related to the extermination of the Jewish people, results accusing Jews of seeking world domination, and other virulently anti-Semitic content.”

“Not only are these results incredibly harmful to the Jewish community at large, but Bing’s allowance of the results on its platform violates both Spanish and European Union law. With this lawsuit, we are seeking to enforce the law to prevent such despicable and dangerous material from appearing in Bing search results,” Goldstein said.

Last year the organization filed a similar complaint against Microsoft in the courts in the Spanish city of Ibiza and notified the company that such racist and abusive content was not only offensive, but defamatory to Jewish people. The Lawfare Project demanded that the anti-Semitic content be blocked from the search engine’s results in compliance with Spanish law.

After Microsoft failed to heed the warning, the libel lawsuit was filed.

“This is not the first time we have taken Big Tech to task over online anti-Semitic content,” Goldstein noted. In a similar case involving Google, The Lawfare Project secured a major victory when it reached an understanding with world’s leading search engine to change its content moderation policy in Spain and remove defamatory content targeting the Jewish people.

“The Lawfare Project will continue to stand up to anyone who endangers Jews by enabling immediate access to hateful, racist, and illegal propaganda,” Goldstein.