Facebook Bans Holocaust Denial Content

Facebook announced a substantial shift in its handling of content denying or distorting the Holocaust on its social network this morning. The company has faced ongoing criticism for previously allowing this deeply offensive material to remain online, citing principles of free expression and a reluctance to assume the responsibilities of a conventional publisher. Today, it is altering that stance, declaring it will revise its hate-speech guidelines to specifically “prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.”

The company stated this decision comes in response to an increasing volume of online hate speech and represents a broader effort by Facebook to combat the proliferation of hateful content throughout its platform.

“We have prohibited over 250 white supremacist organizations and modified our policies to encompass militia groups and QAnon,” Facebook explained in a statement authored by Monika Bickert, VP of Content Policy. “We also consistently remove individuals and organizations globally, and eliminated 22.5 million instances of hate speech from our platform during the second quarter of this year. After a period of consultation with outside specialists, we recently banned anti-Semitic tropes concerning the supposed collective control of Jews, often portraying them as governing the world or its key institutions,” the company added.

Facebook also presented concerning data illustrating the impact of its previous inaction. A recent survey of U.S. adults aged 18-39 revealed that almost a quarter believe the Holocaust is a fabrication, an exaggeration, or are uncertain about its occurrence.

The company also highlighted that organizations dedicated to Holocaust research and remembrance, such as Yad Vashem, emphasize the importance of Holocaust education in countering anti-Semitism.

Many will remember that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg once referenced Holocaust denial as an instance where he believed Facebook should not intervene in user-posted content. During a 2018 interview with Recode and subsequent discussions, he acknowledged that Holocaust denial was a viewpoint he personally found “deeply offensive,” but maintained that Facebook should not remove such content because “there are things that different people get wrong.”

However, this issue and the debate surrounding it were not new to Facebook. Content denying the Holocaust has been a persistent challenge for the company—and a point of disagreement among many of its employees regarding Facebook’s official position. As far back as 2009, Facebook prioritized the protection of free speech, arguing it superseded potential negative consequences.

In subsequent years, Facebook was discovered not only to permit Holocaust denial on its platform but also to actively promote it. A 2020 investigation by the U.K.-based counter-extremist organization Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) found that Facebook search results would suggest denial pages on Facebook and recommend links to publishers selling revisionist and denial literature, among other materials.

This summer, the ADL and other civil rights groups, including the NAACP and Color of Change, organized a month-long boycott of Facebook advertising to pressure the company to address hate speech on its platform. The campaign attracted over 1,000 advertisers and compelled the company to consider changes.

Facebook then moved to ban anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the world across Facebook and Instagram (for the first time) and began to prohibit QAnon, which contains some anti-Semitic elements. However, it did not initially take action regarding Holocaust denial.

In a public Facebook post, Zuckerberg further stated:

Facebook clarifies that its new decision does not imply an immediate removal of all such content from the platform.

“Implementing these policies will not be instantaneous. A wide range of content could potentially violate these policies, and it will require time to train our reviewers and systems for effective enforcement,” Facebook explained.