Social media seeks line on hate speech
NEW YORK — Denying the Holocaust happened is probably OK on Facebook. Calling for a mob to kill Jews is not.
Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt this week to explain where Facebook draws the line illustrates the complexities social media platforms face as they take on the unwanted role of referee in this age of online misinformation, manipulation and hate speech.
Facebook, with
2.2 billion users, disallows such things as nudity, the selling of guns, credible threats of violence, and direct attacks on people because of their race, sex or sexual orientation.
Hours after the Facebook founder’s comments about Holocaust deniers aired Wednesday, the company announced it will also start removing misinformation that could lead to bloodshed. The policy will begin in Sri Lanka and expand to Myanmar, where Facebook users have been accused of inciting anti-muslim violence.
But beyond those guidelines, there are large gray areas. What qualifies as supporting terrorist groups versus merely posting about them? Or mocking someone’s premature death — which is also prohibited?
If Facebook were to ban Holocaust denial, it might also be called on to prohibit the denial of other events, such as the Armenian genocide or the massacre of Native Americans by European colonizers. This, Facebook might argue, could lead to a slippery slope where the company finds itself trying to verify the historical accuracy of users’ posts.
In an interview with Recode, Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, said posts denying the Nazi annihilation of 6 million Jews took place would not necessarily be removed.
The Anti-defamation League said Facebook has a “moral and ethical obligation” not to allow people to disseminate Holocaust denial.
Zuckerberg later said in an email to Recode’s Kara Swisher that he finds “Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that.”