Facebook to Remove Holocaust Denial on the Platform
On October 12th, Facebook announced they are updating their hate speech policy to “prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.” In their statement, Facebook said:
“Today’s announcement marks another step in our effort to fight hate on our services. Our decision is supported by the well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people. According to a recent survey of adults in the US aged 18-39, almost a quarter said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, that it had been exaggerated or they weren’t sure.
“Institutions focused on Holocaust research and remembrance, such as Yad Vashem, have noted that Holocaust education is also a key component in combatting anti-Semitism. Beginning later this year, we will direct anyone to credible information off Facebook if they search for terms associated with the Holocaust or its denial on our platform.”
The move comes after Facebook announced in the week before that they were cracking down on the QAnon movement on their platform. As we outlined in our recent report, the QAnon conspiracy theory has deep antisemitic roots, and so we saw this as a positive step in the fight against this hateful narrative.
We have explored in the past how different social media platforms deal with Holocaust denial, with some choosing to ‘geoblock’ content whilst other have taken a firmer stance in removing it from their platforms. Facebook has been criticised for their lacklustre response over the years.
In an interview two years ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said: “I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened. I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong.” Many people took issue with this stance, as it seemed to validate people who ‘questioned’ the Holocaust – a historical event in which 6 million Jewish people were murdered. Denying this genocide took place is antisemitic, and it should have no place on platforms like Facebook.
Many organisations have been lobbying to get Facebook to update their hate speech policy to include Holocaust denial. Within the Get The Trolls Out project, partners have been campaigning for this for some time, and so the decision is very welcomed. It will be important to monitor how this new policy is implemented on Facebook. Get The Trolls Out partners the European Union of Jewish Students, together with several other organisations, have outlined 10 points for policymakers to effectively tackle antisemitic content online and hold platforms accountable. One of their points is to “educate fact-checkers and content moderators about antisemitism”; with this new policy in place at Facebook, we hope that content moderators are trained properly to detect Holocaust denial.