Mark Zuckerberg is taking a stand against Holocaust deniers and those who try to distort the historical tragedy — and is banning all related content from its site.
“I’ve struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimizing or denying the horror of the Holocaust,” Zuckerberg wrote in his blog post. “Drawing the right lines between what is and isn’t acceptable speech isn’t straightforward, but with the current state of the world, I believe this is the right balance.”
Facebook cited a recent survey which reported that almost a quarter of American adults ages 18 to 39 said they believed the Holocaust either was a myth or was exaggerated, or they weren’t sure whether it happened.
Facebook’s new ban on Holocaust denial won’t extend to other genocides, according to Bloomberg.
“I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened. I find that deeply offensive,” Zuckerberg told Recode in July 2018. “But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong.”