The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has just announced that the company’s hate speech policy will now include Holocaust denial.
In his statement, Mr Zuckerberg said: “Today we’re updating our hate speech policy to ban Holocaust denial.
“We’ve long taken down posts that praise hate crimes or mass murder, including the Holocaust. But with rising antisemitism, we’re expanding our policy to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust as well. If people search for the Holocaust on Facebook, we’ll start directing you to authoritative sources to get accurate information.
“I’ve struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimizing or denying the horror of the Holocaust. My own thinking has evolved as I’ve seen data showing an increase in antisemitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech. 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.”
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “We welcome this policy announcement from Facebook, which, along with its ban on QAnon conspiracy theories earlier this month, shows that the company is beginning to take antisemitic incitement on its platforms seriously. There is a direct line between online incitement and threats and violence against Jews in the real world, and social media companies must take responsibility for the role that their platforms play in this vicious process.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.
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