It is a further step against hate speech online: Facebook has announced that it will in future also display an information website to German-speaking users who search for terms related to the Holocaust.
Facebook users who search for Holocaust-related terms in German will in future be recommended to use a website with detailed information on the genocide of the Jews.
The world’s largest online network and the World Jewish Congress (WJC) announced on Thursday that their collaboration will be expanded to include other languages.
The AboutHolocaust.org website was jointly developed by the WJC and the UN Organization for Education, Science, Culture and Communication (Unesco). The site has been suggested for English-language searches on the Holocaust or its denial since the end of January. Twelve languages will be added over the next few weeks – including Arabic, French, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese and Farsi.
Facebook had long tolerated Holocaust denial – which is illegal in Germany – in other countries with reference to freedom of speech. It was only banned last October after debates and criticism. At that time, founder and boss Mark Zuckerberg justified the rethinking with an increase in anti-Semitism.
Zuckerberg drew criticism three years ago when he stated in an interview that he did not want to continue to ban articles by Holocaust deniers from the platform in principle. He himself was Jewish and found such statements deeply insulting, he told the technology blog “Recode” at the time. “But in the end I don’t think our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people are wrong about. I don’t think they’re deliberately wrong. ”
In the announcement on Thursday, WJC President Ronald Lauder paid tribute to Facebook’s efforts to remove hate speech and support the spread of knowledge about the Holocaust. “I encourage other social media platforms to follow suit on how to use their technology to spread the truth.”
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