Facebook Bans Holocaust Denial to Further Campaign Against Hate Speech - But Why Only Now?

Facebook announced through a blog post on October 12 its new policy that bans Holocaust denial on the social media platform.

According to Facebook executive Monika Bickert, the policy is backed by the rapid rise in anti-Semitism across the globe as well as the startling ignorance among young people about the Holocaust. A recent survey among adults aged 18 to 39 in the US shows that about a quarter thought Holocaust was either a myth or an exaggerated event while others were unsure what it is.

Bickert wrote in the corporate blog post that it is another step in the Facebook's "effort to fight hate on our services." In the past two weeks, the social media giant made huge policy changes and proposals related to misinformation, influence operations, and hate speech.

Why only now?

For years, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been struggling to keep a balance between free speech and the dangers of denying or underrating the "horrors of Holocaust." However, with the current status of the society, he thinks banning Holocaust denial contents is "the right balance." Moving forward, when searching Facebook for Holocaust, people will be routed to authoritative sites to find accurate details.

The new policy is a 180 degree turn for Zuckerberg who has Jew heritage. In 2018, he wrote a note to Recode to clarify his stance made during an earlier podcast that Holocaust denial is deeply offensive for him and he "absolutely didn't intend to defend the intent of people who deny that."

He further explained that Facebook does not intend to prevent anyone from making false statements, but to halt the spread of fake news and misinformation across the platform. This means that even if fact checkers found a post as false, it will not be removed unless it advocated hate or violence against a certain group.

However, Zuckerberg now had a change of heart with the policy. "My own thinking has evolved as I've seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech," he wrote in a Facebook post. He added that while it is hard to draw clear lines between acceptable speech, the banning the denial is proper.

Meanwhile, Anti-Defamation League National Director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt welcomed the new policy and said the ban on Holocaust Denial is a big deal. "This has been years in the making... Glad it finally happened," Greenblatt said, although he wished this happened about three or five years ago.

Zuckerberg Invokes Jewish roots

In 2014, a question was raised in Quora: "Is Mark Zuckerberg Jewish? The answer is quite complex. While he was grew in a Jewish family and taught Jewish faith, Zuckerberg's religious beliefs is unclear. He went through a time when he questioned his faith and became an atheist. However, in 2016, the billionaire was asked whether he is an atheist. He responded: "Now, I believe religion is very important."

Meanwhile, Mark's wife Priscilla Chan is a practicing Buddhist, which perhaps made Zuckerberg interested in Buddhism and its principles.

Meanwhile, in 2018, after the then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's called for "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," Zuckerberg wrote a post to extend his support to the Muslim community worldwide while invoked his Jewish heritage.

"As a Jew, my parents taught me that we must stand up against attacks on all communities. Even if an attack isn't against you today, in time attacks on freedom for anyone will hurt everyone," Zuckerberg wrote adding that Muslims are always welcome on Facebook.

Facebook engagements on fake contents and sites

Meanwhile, German Marshall Fund published report on October 12 stating that the disinformation on Facebook has more than double since 2016. It analyzed more than 720 deceptive sites that spread fake news.

Worse, Facebook engagement deceptive sites increased by 242% after four years with the spike in growth happened in the third quarter of 2019. Meanwhile, engagements in false content almost doubled, but interactions in "manipulator" sites increased by about 300%.

Among the 720 sites, the top 10 "manipulator" sites, which include The Daily Wire and Breitbart, comprise 62% of all interactions remaining bulk account for 38%.

"Disinformation is infecting our democratic discourse at rates that threaten the long-term health of our democracy," said GMF Digital director Karen Kornbluh who also heads the project.

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Written by CJ Robles.