Group Requests Facebook Censor Anti-Holocaust Groups
July 29, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Group Requests Facebook Censor Anti-Holocaust Groups
In a controversy testing the parameters of free speech on the social-networking website Facebook, a Los Angeles-based group of Holocaust survivors has asked the site’s administrators to remove “Holocaust denial” groups from its pages.
MSNBC is reporting that a group of Holocaust survivors affiliated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center has sent this imploration to Facebook:
“We, the undersigned, are Holocaust Survivors who saw our parents, children and loved ones brutally murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. We are writing to you to protest Facebook’s policy that categorizes Holocaust denial as “free speech,” rather than the shameless, cynical and hateful propaganda that it is,” the letter read. “Do not permit Holocaust denial any platform on Facebook to preach its inherent message of lies and hate. By allowing this hate propaganda on Facebook, you are exposing the public and, in particular, youth to the anti-Semitism which fueled the Holocaust. Please correct this terrible error in judgment before our generation passes away.”
The Holocaust-denial pages on Facebook follow different trends, from expressing admiration for the S.S. to protesting Israel. One such example, “Holocaust Was Fake,” gives as its description: “The claim that the Jews who died in a systematic manner gives an argument for the necessity of finding a safe haven for Jews in their own state…the need for the existence of the Jewish State of Israel and recognize its right to exist, which means to justify the rape of the Jews of Palestine.”
MSNBC reported that Facebook sent them an email in which the website claimed that despite the nature of the Holocaust-denial pages, they still do not rise to the level of something they would remove. Facebook has removed pages that call for violence against individuals or groups, including removing a page that called for Palestinians to fight Israelis.
“At Facebook, one of the toughest questions we face is how to handle the sharing of controversial ideas and opinions on the site. Recently, there has been a focus on groups created to deny the occurrence of the Holocaust. We find these groups to be repugnant and ignorant, just as we object to some of the other ideas expressed on Facebook,” write spokesman Andrew Noyes. “We have spent considerable time internally discussing the issues of Holocaust denial and have come to the conclusion that the mere statement of denying the Holocaust is not a violation of our terms… However, if the members of the Holocaust denial groups consistently post hateful or threatening comments, we will take the groups down, and we have done so on many occasions… Many of us at Facebook have direct personal connection to the Holocaust, through parents who were forced to flee Europe or relatives who could not escape. We believe in Facebook’s mission that giving people tools to make the world more open is a better way to combat ignorance or deception than censorship, though we recognize that others may disagree.”
