Facebook has a notoriously hard time moderating content around sensitive religious and political issues, and the ongoing war in the Middle East has brought the issue into sharper focus than ever. And no matter what the company does, it’s bound to enrage a huge amount of people. For example, The Intercept reported this week that Facebook is considering censoring the term “Zionist” — a move that has drawn heavy criticism from both Israeli and Palestinian activists.

Both groups have said that Facebook shouldn’t conflate Zionism — a political ideology – with Judaism — an ethnic and religious identity. They also pointed out that Facebook simply has no way to judge the intent or meaning behind users’ word choices.

“I think it may actually harm the fight against antisemitism, conflating Zionism and the Israeli government with Judaism,” digital rights advocate Nadim Nashif told The Intercept. He went on to say that it would be impossible for Facebook to judge if someone said they “don’t like” Zionists with a hateful intent, adding that “you’d need telepathy” to do so.

Facebook has come to rely heavily on artificial intelligence to detect and remove offensive content. However, cases like this show just how important it is to have real, knowledgeable people reviewing posts to judge their proper context. Implementing blanket censorship for terms like this is not helpful, and may only enflame an already precarious situation.

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