In a number of countries where Holocaust denial is illegal, such as Germany, France and Poland, Facebook does prohibit it.
Facebook’s algorithms are “actively promoting” Holocaust denial content, according to new research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.
Last week, the social media giant pledged to crack down on antisemitic content, but it does not categorise Holocaust denial as hate speech – and according to the ISD, this means such posts are still spreading on the platform.
The anti-extremism think tank found hundreds of thousands of users across 36 groups on Facebook.
After its researchers clicked through these groups, Facebook then began recommending them further Holocaust denial pages.
Extensive analysis by historians has established that more than 11 million people are believed to have been killed by the German state and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.Advertisement
The largest group to be targeted were Jews, of whom approximately six million were murdered in mass shootings, pogroms and in Nazi extermination camps.
Jacob Davey, ISD’s senior research manager, told The Guardian: “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.”
“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.”
