Facebook Bans Holocaust Denial Posts

Facebook will reverse its long-held stance against taking down anti-semitic content by taking down Holocaust denial posts. Posts that deny or distort the Holocaust will be banned and user searches on the Nazi genocide will be directed to authoritative sources.

The social network revised its hate speech policies this Monday. However, the enforcement of these updated policies will take time, as a range of content can violate these policies and reviewers and systems need to be trained to improve enforcement of this policy.

Monika Bickert, VP of Content Policy explained in an official Facebook news report that there has been a “well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people,” with results of a recent survey of adults (aged 18-39) in the US, showing almost a quarter of the respondents believing that the Holocaust was a myth or an exaggeration.

Mark Zuckerberg, Chief executive of Facebook, also added that “drawing the right lines between what is and isn’t acceptable speech isn’t straightforward, but with the current state of the world, I believe this is the right balance.”

While Zuckerberg has been harshly criticized for defending Facebook’s previous policy, this decision is a win for the Holocaust survivors-led campaign which has been urging Facebook to remove the Holocaust denial posts for a long time.

While misinformation and hate speech have become a norm on social media platforms, there is a need to further elaborate on this policy change and introduce similar,all-encompassing revisions in the future to combat hate speech and fake news.