Zuck does flip-flop on Holocaust
Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday rejected claims that he defended the intent of Holocaust deniers, in an attempt to clarify comments he made earlier on a podcast.
Zuckerberg gave the explanation to the Web site Recode after it aired an interview with the Facebook founder claiming “abhorrent” content has a right to spread across his social-media network.
“I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that,” Zuckerberg told Recode. “Of course, if a post crossed a line into advocating for violence or hate against a particular group, it would be removed ... These issues are very challenging, but I believe that often, the best way to fight offensive bad speech is with good speech.”
The company on Wednesday did, in fact, claim it’s developing policies aimed at taking down posts that might incite violence, releasing a statement saying it is targeting “certain forms of misinformation that have contributed to physical harm.”
In his remarks earlier Wednesday on Recode’s “Decode” podcast, Zuckerberg said that although Holocaust denial was “deeply offensive,” it should not be removed from Facebook.
“I don’t believe that our platforms should take that down, because I think there are things that different people get wrong — I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong,” Zuckerberg had said. “As abhorrent as some of this content can be, I do think that it gets down to this principle of giving people a voice.”
Facebook has faced mounting criticism over the past week for allowing the InfoWars site, led by radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, to remain on the platform, despite the fact that it has spread outrageous “hoax” theories about the Sandy Hook school massacre.