Facebooks doesn’t classify holocaust denial as hate speech

Castle Hill’s series of pamphlets denying the Holocaust were banned by Amazon and other booksellers last year but its Holocaust Handbooks are promoted on an open Facebook page.

The Times has found many other examples of offensive content on the site without having to look far.

Among those flagged by the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that protects British Jews from antisemitism, was a photograph of an elderly Jewish woman with the words “It’s privilege” scrawled across her face. The accompanying text read: “My Jewish privilege allows my ancient cultural tradition of lying to be accepted as truth … to dominate and destroy non-Jewish humanity … I have the power to genocide the entire White race … deliberately corrupting their children, destroying their families.” It was removed only after The Times raised concerns.

Facebook says that it does not allow antisemitic hate speech or incitement of violence of any kind and is committed to removing it when reported.

Last night a Facebook spokeswoman said that the failure to remove the “privilege” post when it was initially reported had been accidental but it had since been taken down.

Material relating to holocaust denial is considered more ambiguous by the platform and the community guidelines do not class it as hate speech.

Read the article by Katie Gibbons in The Australian (from The Times).