The social media platform Facebook has announced that it will henceforth ban any post that misrepresents or denies the events of the Holocaust.
In a Facebook post, tech giant founder Mark Zuckerberg announced: “Today we're revising our hate speech policy to ban Holocaust deniers.
We have long taken down posts that condoned hate crimes or mass murders, including the Holocaust. However, with the rise of anti-Semitism, we are expanding our policy to ban any content that denies or misrepresents the Holocaust. If users search for the word Holocaust on Facebook, we will redirect them to official sources to get accurate information. I struggled with the tension between freedom of expression and the harm caused by downplaying or denying the horrors of the Holocaust. My thinking progressed as I saw data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, as well as the expansion of our hate speech policies. It's not always honest to draw the right lines between what is and what isn't acceptable, but in this particular word I think that's the right balance."
Recently, a Tik Tok "fad" of young people posting videos impersonating victims of the Holocaust caused an uproar, a trend that prompted the intervention of the Auschwitz Museum.
Anti-Semitic posts on Facebook surge
In a recent Facebook survey, among US adults aged 18 to 39, 1 in 4 believe the Holocaust is an overblown myth or are unsure of what actually happened. In the same survey, 66% of respondents did not know that 6.000.000 Jews were exterminated by the Nazis.
Commenting on the decision, World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder said: "By taking the decisive step of removing Holocaust denier content, Facebook shows that it recognizes Holocaust denial for what it really is: a form of anti-Semitism and therefore hate speech".
Rapid increase of fake news on Facebook
According to Variety, Facebook has banned 215 white supremacist organizations and last week banned content from groups associated with the Qanon movement, the pro-Trump fake news group. However, it appears that the social network is facing a more severe problem with the spread of inaccurate news than in 2016, before the US election in which Donald Trump was elected. Research published by the "New York Times" finds that likes, comments and reposts of media articles that regularly spread misleading information have tripled in the last 4 years.
Source: iefimerida.gr, 12.10.2020
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