(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. said it has removed a page that directed incendiary comments toward a fast-growing Hasidic Jewish population in New Jersey.
The state Attorney General’s Office had complained for 10 months about the page of a group called Rise Up Ocean County. Rachel Wainer Apter, director of the office’s civil-rights division, had “concerns about racist and anti-Semitic statements on the page,” according to a statement.
Lakewood, home to one of the world’s largest yeshivas, is among New Jersey’s fastest-growing municipalities. Some homeowners in surrounding towns in recent years have led a movement to resist selling to Hasidim, saying their insular culture clashes with that of non-Jews.
Facebook reviewed the page periodically, according to Daniel Roberts, a company spokesman.
“Upon further review we have determined this page violates our community standards for hate speech and have removed it from the platform,” Roberts said in an email.
In a joint statement, Governor Phil Murphy and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said they “appreciate that Facebook has now decided that this kind of hateful rhetoric has no place on its platform.”
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