Jewish MP Slams Social Media Giants for Antisemitic Comments Response
Burns said he reported about 40 offensive posts since 2021, but Facebook and Instagram removed only 3, prompting calls for stronger hate laws.
- On Tuesday, Federal Labor MP Josh Burns testified at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, urging stronger vilification laws because social media platforms are failing to adequately respond to online hate.
- Burns reported 44 posts to Instagram and Facebook since November 2021, with just three removed; complaints disappear into a 'black hole' where social media companies rarely return a call or report an outcome.
- An arson attack on his St Kilda electorate office in June 2024 forced residents to evacuate and left businesses without internet for a week, with slogans including 'Zionism is fascism' spray-painted across the facade.
- Burns' partner, Victorian Legislative Council member Georgie Purcell, who is not Jewish, has been subjected to ferocious abuse with an added layer of misogyny and violent sexualisation, with online posts comparing her to Eva Braun.
- Burns called for expanding the eSafety Commissioner's powers to address hate speech targeting minority groups generally, while Labor colleague Mark Dreyfus said in January 2026 that broader hate speech laws are needed to create offences not requiring elements of violence or threatening force.
9 Articles
9 Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
‘Biggest arena of antisemitism’: Jewish MP Josh Burns slams social media companies
The federal Labor MP told the royal commission of antisemitic attacks levelled at him, his staff and his partner, Victorian MP Georgie Purcell.
'We were lost': Jewish MP revisits office arson attack
When Josh Burns was awoken in the dead of night and told his workplace had been violently attacked, his first concern was his community. “I felt almost guilty,” the Macnamara Labor MP, who is Jewish, told the royal commission into anti-Semitism about the events in June 2024. Anti-Semitic slurs had been written across the facade of his electorate office. A picture of him had horns spray painted on it, with the words “Zionism is fascism” inscri…
‘We were lost’: Jewish MP revisits office arson attack
When Josh Burns was awoken in the dead of night and told his workplace had been violently attacked, his first concern was his community. “I felt almost guilty,” the Macnamara Labor MP, who is Jewish, told the royal commission into anti-Semitism about the events in June 2024. Anti-Semitic slurs had been written across the facade of his electorate office. A picture of him had horns spray painted on it, with the words “Zionism is fascism” inscri…
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