Conservative Friends of Israel Vice-Chairman has urged
Home Secretary to “immediately investigate” how cloud-based voice
services “select their material and sources”, after learning that
responses given by the Amazon Alexa device “lend credibility to
antisemitic views”.
In a letter today, Mr Percy wrote that the UK “has a proud
history of tackling antisemitism” and “led the way in adopting
the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)
definition of antisemitism in December 2016”, welcoming the
Government’s plans to legislate against online harms.
“On this theme”, he wrote, “I was deeply alarmed to learn
recently that the cloud-based Amazon ‘Alexa’ voice service
responds to various questions about Jewish people, the Holocaust,
and the State of Israel by quoting antisemitic conspiracy
websites and using selective quotes from other sources which are
misleading without further explanation”.
Mr Percy, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group against
Antisemitism, quoted a series of examples and noted that “the
disturbing content, in a number of cases, violates the IHRA
definition”.
In response to the question “Do Jews control the media?” Alexa
states: “Here’s something I found from the article ‘Jew Watch’ on
Wikipedia: Jew Watch claims that Jews control the world’s
financial systems and media”.
Responding to the question “Do the Elders of Zion control the
world?” Alexa answers: “Here’s something I found on the web:
According to palwatch.org, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,
the swindlers of Zion have revealed their schemes to subjugate
the nations and gain control of the world”. Mr Percy writes that
“the full article describes the claim as ‘viciously antisemitic’,
but Alexa omits this crucial point”.
In answering the question “Is the State of Israel racist?”
Alexa’s reply includes a quote stating that “Israel is and will
remain a racist Jewish state”, and in response to the question
“Is Israel guilty of war crimes”, Alexa states that Israel
conducts “ethnic cleansing on a massive scale”, quoting the
website craigmurray.org.uk. The MP for Brigg and Goole notes that
“Murray’s website features material which many would consider
antisemitic including the assertion that Israel is a ‘racist
concept’” and Murray himself “has stated that the UK is ‘not a
functioning democracy’ and publicly questioned the British
account of the Salisbury attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal”.
Alexa answers the question “Was the Holocaust a hoax?” with the
following quote from Wikipedia: “Most Holocaust deniers claim,
either explicitly or implicitly, that the Holocaust is a hoax—or
an exaggeration—arising from a deliberate Jewish conspiracy
designed to advance the interest of Jews at the expense of other
people”.
“The full Wikipedia article describes Holocaust denial as
propagating a number of ‘false’ statements about the Holocaust,
but Alexa selectively uses a line within the article that does
not include this important clarification”, Mr Percy writes.
“Given that there are likely far more examples”, he urges the
Home Secretary to “call in Amazon to discuss this”, and to
“immediately investigate how these voice services select their
material and sources”.
Letter attached to this email
