New analysis suggests Facebook’s algorithm “actively promotes” Holocaust denial content
A new analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has concluded that Facebook’s algorithm “actively promoted” Holocaust denial content.
The UK-based ISD, a counter-extremism organisation, reportedly found that if one searches for “Holocaust” on Facebook, one receives suggestions for Holocaust denial pages which themselves link to publishing websites offering Holocaust revisionist and denial literature, such as material by notorious Holocaust-denier David Irving.
Last week, Facebook announced that it was banning conspiracy theories about Jews “controlling the world” from its platform and from Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. But there is no plan to proscribe Holocaust denial on the networks.
Jacob Davey, ISD’s senior research manager, reportedly said: “Facebook’s decision to allow Holocaust denial content to remain on its platform is framed under the guise of protecting legitimate historical debate, but this misses the reason why people engage in Holocaust denial in the first place. Denial of the Holocaust is a deliberate tool used to delegitimise the suffering of the Jewish people and perpetuate long-standing antisemitic tropes, and when people explicitly do this it should be seen as an act of hatred.”
Recently, Campaign Against Antisemitism part of a coalition of 140 organisations around the world calling on Facebook to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism.
