You’re using a replaced browser. Update your browser to your experience.
As Facebook continues to combat Holocaust denial on its platform, policies implemented through YouTube and Reddit show that the elimination of anti-Semitism on social media is still possible, a British tank said in a report released last week.
The document, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, traced the frequency of the word “Holoengaño”, a term not unusual for Holocaust deniers, on social media platforms for more than two years. He discovered that Facebook, the world’s largest social media network, “provides a home to an established and active network of Holocaust deniers,” while those conspiracy theories had decreased significantly on YouTube after a policy replaced through the Google-led company in 2019.
The report discovered 36 Facebook teams in particular committed to Holocaust denial, and argued that the platform’s set of rules created a “snowball” effect through which other people who like anti-Semitic content will be similar pages.
Facebook has been criticized for years for its laissez-faire technique for Holocaust denial. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a 2018 interview that he was initially opposed to the removal of many bureaucracies from the social network’s hate speech. “I am Jewish and there is an organization of other people who deny that the Holocaust has occurred. I find it deeply shocking,” he told Kara Swisher of Recode. “But at the end of the day, I don’t think our platform deserves to eliminate that because I think there are things other people are talking about.”
This position has been criticized through several civil rights organizations. Among them the Anti-Defamation League, which among the leaders of a boycott crusade on Facebook until it replaced its practices. “Holocaust denial is a theory of despicable, anti-Semitic conspiracy that Jews have deceived everyone and isdglobal’s quest reinforces what we know to be true: Facebook not only takes credit for hate, magnifies it and presents it,” he said. wrote on Twitter.
Facebook announced last week that it would replace its policy of banning conspiracy theories about alleged Jewish global domination, as well as images of the black face. However, his announcement mentioned any adjustment to his Holocaust denial policy.
YouTube and Reddit are two platforms that have made such adjustments and, according to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, appear to have been successful.
The video company last year announced adjustments to the set of rules and policies aimed at suppressing or minimizing extremist and racist videos, adding the ban on videos selling Nazism and Holocaust denial. After the adjustments, “the dissemination of the content of Holocaust denial was particularly reduced on YouTube,” the expert group found.
In addition, YouTube announced in July that it had removed 25,000 accounts for violating its hate speech rules, adding those belonging to white nationalists Richard Spencer and David Duke.
On the contrary, the adjustments might have been too wide. In 2019, videos by a major school history instructor about World War II were also removed, as were videos from an anti-racist researcher documenting the anti-Semitic activities of extremists. Both accounts were reset after YouTube responded to media reports about the incidents.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue also thought of Reddit as a combined success. Although the frequency of publications on Holocaust denial remained constant between 2018 and 2020, the expert group noted that Reddit workers and volunteer moderators had been able to minimize their spread. The report noted that the company had effectively banned several users and “subreddits”, or bulletin boards, which aimed at Holocaust denial, and praised its users for being proactive in combating posts about Holocaust denial through comments and a “downward vote”.
In a statement, a Reddit spokesperson noted that until the end of June, the last end of the expert group study, which followed the content until July 2020, had replaced its content policy to prohibit content that encourages violence or hatred, and the procedure. banned thousands of subreddits. Array adding many anti-Semites. “In addition, we have engaged groups that enforce our policies across the site, proactively confront poor players on the site, and built in-house teams to stumble and eliminate content that doesn’t comply with policies,” the spokesman said.
Aiden Pink is the deputy editor of Forward. Get in touch with him on [email protected] or with him on Twitter at aidenpink
We’ll send you an email every time we post some other J.J. post. Goldberg article.
This item has been shipped!