Facebook Chief Shtum Regarding Its Toleration Of Holocaust Denial

Although one of Facebook's terms of service is "You will not post content that: is hateful ...," the social networking site has for some years (the alarm was first sounded in 2008) tolerated groups and pages dedicated to the sick phenomenon of Holocaust denial, and as I noted at the time, recently explained this stance following complaints from a group of Holocaust survivors:

"We think that there is a meaningful difference between advocating violence against a group of people and expressing an opinion on a policy, set of beliefs, or historical event." http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2011/07/de-nile-is-cesspool-on-facebook.html

At a meeting of the Online Antisemitism Working Group in Jerusalem last month, the issue (first raised by the Working Group two years ago) was discussed via video link with a senior executive of Facebook, who frustratingly confirmed the company line. This resulted in a letter being sent on 12 July to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg by the co-chairmen of the Working Group, Winnipeg-based lawyer David Matas and Melbourne-based academic Dr Andre Oboler:

"We call on Facebook to abandon its insistence on treating Holocaust denial in a context-free manner, in which it is considered nothing more than the rejection of a historical event. The context makes it clear that there is no meaningful distinction between Holocaust denial and incitement to hatred against Jews … We ask that Facebook recognize Holocaust denial as a form of hate speech, issue a statement to this effect, and do its utmost to remove Holocaust denial from the Facebook platform."

Zuckerberg has not responded, and Oboler reportedly speculates that perhaps Zuckerberg and his fellow Jewish executives are "bending too far in the other direction to let everybody know that they support free speech".
Read more: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/18/facebook-s-holocaust-denial-hate-speech-problem.html