Anti-Semitic Cyberbullying: One Target Speaks Out
Blogs
May 24, 2017

I came across John Pierre Jones on a public Facebook page, where he was spewing outrageously obscene anti-Jewish hate propaganda. There was the Octopus, labeled with the Star of David, clenching the US Capitol building with its tentacles. The tentacles were labeled with the names of Jewish organizations. Then came a racist caricature of an obese, bespectacled, sleazy-looking woman with an exaggerated nose, identified as Jewish by the Star of David she wore, and the additional word “Israel.”  The accompanying comment by John Pierre Jones chastised the “congressional whores for kissing Zionazi ass.” Claiming that “the world will learn who really was behind 9/11,” Jones pinned Jewish stars next to an image of the landmark Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Seeing John Pierre Jones’ Facebook posts, I felt like I was being transported back to 1930’s Nazi Germany. I checked out Jones’s Facebook page and was shocked to discover that this grotesque individual described himself as a “Jew from Tunisia, an Arab Jew and an anti-Zionist Jew.”

I am urging GoDaddy – and other companies such as Facebook and Google – to vigilantly enforce their own rules and policies to protect innocent individuals from harassment….  We need more legislation to provide the necessary protections.

Under one of his repugnant anti-Semitic posts, I wrote something like, “Here is another Jew-baiter who claims to be a Jew.”  I then blocked John Pierre Jones on Facebook so that I wouldn’t have to see any more of his vicious anti-Semitism.

But this did not end my encounters with the malicious John Pierre Jones.

A few months later, I discovered that John P Jones had taken my name, Victoria Mashinson, and registered it as the domain name for an anti-Semitic website.  Next to my name he wrote “Zionist bitch” and provided a link to my personal Facebook page. On the hate site he created at my expense, John P has been spreading the modern anti-Jewish blood libel, equating Zionism and Nazism, and featuring the same anti-Israel imagery that he posts on his own Facebook page.

In a frighteningly parasitic fashion, John Jones has stolen my identity and is using it to spread his deranged anti-Semitic beliefs. Anyone searching for me on line, for either personal or professional reasons, would be inadvertently exposed to John P Jones’ anti-Semitic garbage.  My name is unique and it’s a part of who I am.  But John Jones has taken that from me.  I cannot even use my own name on line for fear that others will be misled and associate me with his hateful and abhorrent views.In fact, I am nothing like John Jones.  I am Jewish and a proud and unapologetic Zionist.

I am not Jones’ only target:  He has stolen the names of others and used those names to create websites hosted by GoDaddy, an American company that registers domain names and hosts websites.

I have repeatedly reached out to GoDaddy and informed the company about John Jones’s anti-Semitic abuse at my expense, and his violation of my personal privacy, all in violation of GoDaddy’s own rules and policies.  The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has also contacted GoDaddy numerous times on my behalf.  The ZOA has referred GoDaddy to its own policies, which prohibit harassing and abusive behavior that violates the privacy rights of another, and has urged GoDaddy to exercise its authority to shut down Jones’ anti-Semitic website that targets me.  But to date, GoDaddy has refused to take down the website, suggesting that I file a lawsuit instead, which would be time-consuming and very expensive.  GoDaddy has chosen to allow its services to be used to harass a Jewish woman, and is enabling the actions of a vicious anti-Semite.

This is not an issue of free speech as no one has called on GoDaddy to prevent the raging fanatic John Jones from expressing his horrendous beliefs. But I am urging GoDaddy – and other companies such as Facebook and Google – to vigilantly enforce their own rules and policies to protect innocent individuals from harassment, abuse and the violation of our personal privacy.  We need more legislation to provide the necessary protections.  Otherwise, thugs like Jones – and their enablers like GoDaddy – will continue to have free rein in promoting their vile hatred at the expense of people like me. 

  • Center for Law & Justice
    We work to educate the American public and Congress about legal issues in order to advance the interests of Israel and the Jewish people.
    We assist American victims of terrorism in vindicating their rights under the law, and seek to hold terrorists and sponsors of terrorism accountable for their actions.
    We fight anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses.
    We strive to enforce existing law and also to create new law in order to safeguard the rights of the Jewish people in the United States and Israel.