To battle Holocaust denial, Facebook announces tool to connect users with facts
In an effort to contend with Holocaust denial on its platform, Facebook announced on Wednesday—International Holocaust Remembrance Day—that it will begin to connect users to a site with facts about the 20th-century atrocity that killed 11 million people, including 6 million Jews.
Facebook logo. Credit: www.shopcatalog.com via Flickr.
“We honour the memories of the victims and recognize the role we can play to help fulfil the promise ‘Never Again.’ Starting today, we will begin to connect people with authoritative information about the Holocaust,” said Facebook in a statement. “Anyone who searches on Facebook for terms associated with either the Holocaust or Holocaust denial will see a message from Facebook encouraging them to connect with credible information about the Holocaust off Facebook.”
The Facebook tool connecting users to a website with facts about the Holocaust will first be available in English-speaking countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States. It will be available in more languages and countries over the coming months, according to the social media platform.
That website to connect users with factual information is aboutholocaust.org, which was created by the World Jewish Congress with the support of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO.
“Holocaust denial, Holocaust distortion and the spreading of conspiracy myths about the Holocaust generally have become cornerstones in the vicious incitement of antisemitic hatred on the part of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other extremist forces,” said WJC president Ronald S. Lauder in the Facebook statement.
In October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the platform would be banning posts that deny or distort the Holocaust and would redirect users from posts that deny or distort the Holocaust to “authoritative sources to get accurate information.”
JNS
There seems to be a bit of contradiction here from Mark Zuckerberg. On the one hand, he says that he will ban posts denying the Holocaust and redirect users to ‘authoritative sources,’ but why on earth did he allow such posts ever to gain traction on his platform in the first place? Would such posts have been allowed or tolerated if they were about any other religion, like Islam? I wonder—the man’s nothing but a hypocrite, in my opinion.