Antisemitic online abuse has been directed towards top AFL draft hopeful Harry Sheezel, who is set to become the first Jewish player this century to be selected at the league’s national draft.
On Saturday evening, this masthead’s Facebook page shared an article published by The Age about Sheezel, a talented medium forward who is a likely top five pick. In that article, the prolific goalkicker shared his desire to be a positive role model for the Jewish community.
Young draft hopeful Harry Sheezel has been subjected to antisemetic abuse online.Credit:Jason South
Facebook users celebrated the 18-year-old’s achievements, however a handful of commenters on the post subjected Sheezel to antisemitic abuse, some of which made reference to the holocaust.
The Age removed the post from Facebook the following day once its social media team were made aware of the hateful comments. All other posts linking to the article on social media were restricted to prevent further comments.
Acting Age editor Michael Bachelard said the published article was a lovely, positive story about a young man facing a big day – his drafting to the AFL.
“It’s disgraceful and disappointing that sewer-dwellers on social media took such a story and turned it into an excuse for vile antisemitic abuse,” he said.
“As this is, unfortunately, growing more common, we normally use our discretion to block comments on stories that even mention the religion or race of a person. (The social media companies do not allow us to pre-moderate comments). On this occasion, unfortunately, the story was posted at a busy time – the evening of the state election – and the usual, cautious practice was overlooked.
“Comments were not blocked or adequately moderated until the issue was drawn to our attention, when the situation was rectified. For this, we apologise to Harry Sheezel and the broader Jewish community.”
Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said that Australians must accept that “the genie of antisemitism is out of the bottle.”
“The number of revolting posts that have targeted Harry Sheezel on Facebook is alarming, and points to a large-scale normalisation and acceptance of bigoted, hateful speech that is a hallmark of social media today,” Abramovich said.
Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich.
The abusive comments directed towards Sheezel come amid concerns about the loosening of content moderation on social media. Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter; racist, antisemitic and other forms of hate speech have risen, according to groups that monitor the platform.
“At a time of unprecedented levels of antisemitism in our nation, it is vital that tech companies like Meta [owner of Facebook] and others enforce their own community guidelines and ban these agents of prejudice,” Abramovich said.
In the NBA, Brooklyn Nets’ player Kyrie Irving was suspended for five games after he posted a link to antisemitic work on his Twitter feed, which he refused to apologise for. Among the fall-out, the team’s coach Steve Nash was fired.
Sheezel is tipped to be among the top selections at the draft, which starts on Monday at 7pm.
“I think I can use myself to be a positive role model for kids to hopefully make the AFL more often,” Sheezel, who does not actively practice Judaism, but is involved in the Jewish community, told The Age last week.
“The Jewish community loves sport, and they’ve got a lot of good, young, talented footballers coming through.”
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