‘My own thinking has evolved as I’ve seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence,’ Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in reversing a company policy that allowed Holocaust denial on the social network.
Facebook will ban Holocaust denial content on the social network two years after CEO Mark Zuckerberg refused to take down the misinformation.
Why the reversal? Facebook has noticed an increase in anti-Semitism and ignorance about the Holocaust—the very outcome critics were worried would happen if the misinformation persisted on the platform.
“We’ve long taken down posts that praise hate crimes or mass murder, including the Holocaust. But with rising anti-Semitism, we’re expanding our policy to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust as well,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page today.
Two years ago, Facebook’s CEO was reluctant to take down baseless claims that the Holocaust is a hoax, citing the need to protect free speech. “Look, as abhorrent as some of this content can be, I do think that it gets down to this principle of giving people a voice,” Zuckerberg said in an interview with Recode at the time.
Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, went on to say his main gripe with taking down the content is how “it’s hard to impugn intent (of Holocaust deniers) and to understand the intent.” In other words, the Holocaust denial may simply come from people who are just misguided.
Read the article by Michael Kan in PC Magazine.