LinkedIn issues warning to site that shames pro-Palestinian sentiment.

Online posts demanding to “#PrayForPalestine.” Supplications for peace. Advocacy to “Liberate Gaza.”

Over the past 10 days, a website called anti-israel-employees.com has published more than 17,000 messages, including One of the site's managers indicates that it comes mainly from LinkedIn. The site, which claims to be a "global live feed of potentially pro-terrorism sentiment among company employees," has listed thousands of people and grouped them by workplace, in an apparent attempt to shame them for their feelings on the Israel-Hamas conflict. .

The website, which was taken offline for a day before being migrated to a new web address, named employees of major international companies, including Amazon , Mastercard and Ernst & Young. , and shared their profile photos, LinkedIn pages and posts.

Itai Liptz, a hedge fund manager who said he was one of people behind the original site, said its goal was to "publicly denounce people who supported Hamas."

“We wanted this to be documented and recorded,” he said. "If I work at this company, but I see my friends on LinkedIn celebrating and praising Hamas, then I don't feel safe."

But the site also highlighted publications. of people who have not explicitly expressed support for Hamas, according to articles seen by the New York Times. Some people used hashtags like “#GazaUnderAttack” or sought to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. The site asked users to submit posts they believed should be exposed, and included a numerical "hate score" for businesses.

The site, created 10 days ago, comes amid a broader debate over online expression during a tense international conflict. Similar lists were also created to track students who spoke out in favor of the Palestinians, while Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, said it removed nearly 800,000 pieces of Hebrew and Arabic content for violating of its rules in the three countries. a few days after the Hamas attacks of October 7.

Some people highlighted on the site have already deleted their LinkedIn publications or their LinkedIn profiles. Liptz, who said he did not expect the site to become so popular after it spread through WhatsApp groups, called the large-scale capture of all pro-Palestinian sentiment a mistake. /p>

“If someone says 'Free Palestine,' that's perfectly acceptable, and we shouldn't put it on our website,” he said. he declared on Saturday. "We just want to make sure the filters are there because they have the right to say so."

The site was, however, back online on Sunday on a new website. address and still displayed messages and names of people that Mr. Liptz had said would be removed. Now located on an Israel-specific domain, the site is overseen by Guy Ophir, a lawyer in Israel, who said the team moved it to a new address after receiving a cease and desist letter from LinkedIn .

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">A LinkedIn spokesperson said the company determined that the site had used automated programs to scrape content from the platform, a practice known as name scraping, which constitutes a violation of its rules. Mr. Liptz denied that his site scraped LinkedIn's information, while Mr. Ophir said he believed LinkedIn was trying to infringe on his right to free speech.

"We're not going to take down the website," he said. "We're ready to fight them here."

The site has been the subject of discussions at Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and at LinkedIn, where employees have expressed concern about the chilling effect it could have on online discourse .

"People are deleting pro-Palestinian posts on LinkedIn and adding them to a database of 'terror supporters'" one employee wrote last Wednesday in a note on an internal Meta discussion forum that was seen by the Times.

Other Meta employees were incredulous that expressing support for Palestine was equated to supporting terrorism.

“The lack of understanding,” one Meta employee wrote, “is beyond insensitive and cruel. »