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X briefly allows anti-Leo Frank ‘community note’ as antisemitism flares on the platform
(JTA) — A “community note” saying falsely that Leo Frank, the victim of an antisemitic lynching in 1915, was guilty of raping and murdering a young girl appeared and disappeared several times over the weekend on X, the platform known until recently as Twitter.
Community notes, which allow users to contribute additional context about tweets, were expanded in late 2022 as new owner Elon Musk’s favored tool for battling misinformation on the platform. But the community note about Frank offers the latest indication that the technology can be misused.
The note was appended to tweets by the Anti-Defamation League and its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, marking the anniversary of Frank’s lynching. The Jewish civil rights group was founded in the wake of the case.
“Readers added context: He raped and murdered a 13 year old white girl and tried to frame the illiterate black janitor,” the note said. “His pardon, 73 years after his death, does not clear him of the accused crime and was likely politically-motivated.” The note then offered two links, both to white supremacist websites, purporting to offer evidence.
There is in fact a widespread consensus that Frank was innocent of the crime and that his arrest and prosecution were driven by antisemitism. Frank has long been a hobbyhorse for neo-Nazis who reject that consensus and see the advocacy on his behalf as evidence of Jewish control of the media, a longstanding antisemitic trope.
Frank’s profile — and the simmering neo-Nazi preoccupation with him — grew this year with the success of “Parade,” the Broadway musical that tells Frank’s story. Neo-Nazis rallied outside the show on its opening night.
The note was deleted then added back several times on multiple accounts before finally disappearing permanently, as X’s moderation team played a game of whack-a-mole with neo-Nazi trolls.
The note was one of several instances in recent days when X’s new features seemed to reward antisemites. Last week, Media Matters reported that X was placing advertising on an account that was openly pro-Nazi; CNN later verified the reporting. The account was suspended after the report and several of the brands that had their ads placed there said they would no long pay for advertising on the platform. Some said they had not paid for the ads in the first place.
Additionally, the platform just issued its first payments to users whose content generates high engagement, an initiative that Musk announced. Among those touting their dividends in recent days was Lucas Gage, a white nationalist formerly known as Angelo John Gage, whose posts consist largely of anti-Jewish content. “Finally got paid for dropping red pills and triggering people,” he tweeted when sharing a screenshot of what he said was a receipt for his $165 payment.
In the days since, Gage posted more than half a dozen times about Leo Frank, including once with a video that he titled “Unhinged Ultra Rant: the ADL and Leo Frank cover up.” In several instances, he mentioned the appearance and disappearance of the community note.
The ADL has been highly critical of Twitter and Musk, urging an advertising boycott of the platform when the new owner began restoring accounts suspended over antisemitism and other forms of hate. More recently, the organization began buying ads again.
Several accounts associated with the ADL, including Greenblatt’s, also pay the $8-a-month fee that Musk introduced to unlock special features.
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The post X briefly allows anti-Leo Frank ‘community note’ as antisemitism flares on the platform appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Israel Agrees to Talks on Lebanon Border, to Free Five Lebanese, PM Office Says
An Israeli flag flies in Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, following the ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, as seen from Metula, northern Israel, Dec. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Israel said on Tuesday it had agreed to hold talks to demarcate its border with Lebanon, adding it would release five Lebanese detainees held by the Israeli military in what it called a “gesture to the Lebanese president.”
A statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel had agreed with Lebanon, the US, and France to establish working groups to discuss the demarcation line between the two countries.
Though Israel has largely withdrawn from southern Lebanon under a ceasefire deal agreed in November, its troops continue to hold five hilltop positions in the area with airstrikes in southern Lebanon citing what it described as Hezbollah activity.
The ceasefire deal ended more than a year of conflict between Israel‘s military and the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah that was playing out in parallel with the Gaza war.
The fighting peaked in a major Israeli air and ground campaign in southern Lebanon that left Hezbollah badly weakened, with most of its military command killed in Israeli strikes.
The post Israel Agrees to Talks on Lebanon Border, to Free Five Lebanese, PM Office Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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UN Security Council to Meet Over Iran’s Growing Stockpile of Near-Bomb-Grade Uranium
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The United Nations Security Council will meet behind closed doors on Wednesday over Iran’s expansion of its stock of uranium close to weapons grade, diplomats said on Monday.
The meeting was requested by six of the council’s 15 members – France, Greece, Panama, South Korea, Britain, and the US.
They also want the council to discuss Iran’s obligation to provide the UN nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – with “the information necessary to clarify outstanding issues related to undeclared nuclear material detected at multiple locations in Iran,” diplomats said.
Iran’s mission to the UN in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the planned meeting.
Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon. However, it is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60 percent purity, close to the roughly 90 percent weapons-grade level, the IAEA has warned.
Western states say there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level under any civilian program and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Iran reached a deal in 2015 with Britain, Germany, France, the US, Russia, and China – known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – that lifted sanctions on Tehran in return for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Washington quit the agreement in 2018 during Donald Trump’s first term as US president, and Iran began moving away from its nuclear-related commitments.
Britain, France, and Germany have told the UN Security Council that they are ready – if needed – to trigger a so-called snap back of all international sanctions on Iran to prevent the country from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
They will lose the ability to take such action on Oct. 18 this year when the 2015 UN resolution on the deal expires. US President Donald Trump has directed his UN envoy to work with allies to snap back international sanctions and restrictions on Iran.
The post UN Security Council to Meet Over Iran’s Growing Stockpile of Near-Bomb-Grade Uranium first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Entire Families Killed in Syria’s Military Crackdown, UN Says
A man inspects a damaged car in Latakia, after hundreds were reportedly killed in some of the deadliest violence in 13 years of civil war, pitting loyalists of deposed President Bashar al-Assad against the country’s new Islamist rulers, Syria, March 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Haidar Mustafa
Entire families including women and children were killed in Syria’s coastal region as part of a series of sectarian killings by the army against an insurgency by Bashar al-Assad loyalists, the UN human rights office said on Tuesday.
Pressure has been growing on Syria’s Islamist-led government to investigate after reports by a war monitor of the killing of hundreds of civilians in villages where the majority of the population were members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.
“In a number of extremely disturbing instances, entire families – including women, children, and individuals hors de combat – were killed, with predominantly Alawite cities and villages targeted in particular,” UN human rights office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said, using a French term for those incapable of fighting.
So far, the UN human rights office has documented the killing of 111 civilians and expects the real toll to be significantly higher, Al-Kheetan told a Geneva press briefing. Of those, 90 were men; 18 were women; and three were children, he added.
“Many of the cases documented were of summary executions. They appear to have been carried out on a sectarian basis,” Al-Kheetan told reporters. In some cases, men were shot dead in front of their families, he said, citing testimonies from survivors.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk welcomed an announcement by Syria’s Islamist-led government to create an accountability committee and called for those investigations to be prompt, thorough, independent, and impartial, the spokesperson added.
The post Entire Families Killed in Syria’s Military Crackdown, UN Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.