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| Facebook withdraws its Holocaust denial stance and will prohibit denial |
Facebook announced today, Monday, that it will now ban content that "denies or distorts the Holocaust," a move that violates the site's previous guidelines.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg) said in an audio interview in 2018 that Facebook has not removed the Holocaust, which denies the content, because users may make unexpected mistakes. Of users who share such content, Zuckerberg said, "I don't think they made mistakes on purpose."
When announcing the new change, Facebook said: "Our decision is supported by the documented rise in anti-Semitism worldwide and disturbing ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people."
The site cited a recent survey that found that nearly 25% of American adults ages 18 to 39 believed the Holocaust was myth, exaggerated, or unproven.
"I have seen a tension between supporting freedom of expression and minimizing or rejecting the harm caused by the brutality of the Holocaust," Zuckerberg said on his Facebook blog.
"When I saw data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, I made my decision. While it is not easy to draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable, it is about the current state of the world, but I think it's the right balance," Zuckerberg added.
Zuckerberg always said: Facebook should not judge the truth of the content of its platform. The company received widespread criticism earlier this year for its hate speech and misinformation policies, including boycotting ads on the site.
However, over the years, Facebook has taken several steps to show that it sometimes acts as an arbiter. In a post, Facebook said: In the second quarter of 2020, 22.5 million hate speech was removed and more than 250 organizations claiming white supremacy were banned. The site recently banned all QAnon groups and ads supporting the conspiracy theory.
Last week, the site also deleted a post from President Donald Trump falsely claiming that Coronavirus is not as deadly as seasonal flu.