‘Abhorrent’ anti-semitic forum postings condemned by Lewes councillors

It appeared last month on the website Lewes Forum where a question was posted under the title ‘Christmas Lists’ asking for ideas for gifts.

Immediately two replies were submitted which both made unmistakable references to Holocaust events “in the most offensive terms”, according to the minute’s of last month’s full meeting of the council.

These were removed shortly after the site operator was informed the next morning but by then the “blatantly anti-semitic” posts had been in the public domain for more than 12 hours.

After discussion by members, it was resolved that: “Lewes Town Council condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent posting of abhorrent anti-semitic material on the local website Lewes Forum.

“It calls upon the Forum operators to introduce much stronger editorial controls to prevent personal abuse and hate speech and to assist in any investigation by providing technical details to appropriate authorities.”

The webmaster of the site had submitted a statement for consideration at the meeting in which it was explained that registration had now been introduced, with a much more rigorous monitoring system, and overnight postings were now prohibited.

During debate, the council heard the site often contained a number of ‘disturbing’ posts, and it was suggested the anonymity of published items still meant that subjects could not see who was posting items about them, and the point of illegality had to be reached before the measures took effect.

The statement by ‘Webbo’, webmaster of the Lewes Forum, said the matter had been “a grave abuse of a much used and valued part of our local media” and outlined action being taken to prevent any recurrence.

It said that on the evening of Saturday, December 1, a thread was started entitled ‘What’s on your Christmas List this year? I’m looking for ideas.’ The webmaster said: “This thread did not initially appear of concern, but subsequently two posts were entered which were truly appalling, containing racially hateful statements.

“I was alerted to these statements the following morning and they were immediately deleted for contravening terms and conditions of use. In addition, the individual who wrote the posts was immediately banned from further use of the forum.

“It is very much regretted that the individual wrote these posts at the time, when on this occasion the moderator was not on duty.”