National Post (National Edition)

Holocaust denial still alive and well

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Well, Facebook has finally done the right thing. According to a notice published over Simchat Torah, the social media behemoth is “updating our hate speech policy to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.”

For an entity that prides itself on speed and freshness, this took a depressing­ly long time.

Jewish organizati­ons from the Anti-Defamation League to the American Jewish Committee, and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs to Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre have been imploring Facebook for years to take action against Holocaust denial and distortion. It took an immense push from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (the Claims Conference), which produced dramatic daily videos of Holocaust survivors, including from Canada, imploring Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to rid his platform of this toxic content for him to finally take action.

And for those who still believe that Holocaust deniers are simply ignorant white supremacis­ts, consider the story of William Latson, the principal of Spanish River High School in Boca Raton, Fla.

During an email exchange in April 2018 with a parent, Latson insisted that Spanish River students could choose not to take Holocaust studies because “not everyone believed the Holocaust happened.”

He insisted that as an educator, he had to be “politicall­y neutral.”

The parent was naturally astounded, maintainin­g that everyone knows the Holocaust is a historical fact. Apparently, not Latson, who responded in another email: “I can't say that the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee.”

The drama continued for months, with Latson finally being fired for continuing to make these claims. Just last week, he was reinstated with back pay, but will no longer serve in a teaching capacity. (The school board voted to reinstate Latson 4-3, with the board's only Jewish member strongly urging against it. Another member blamed the media.)

Holocaust denial has clearly not abated. Indeed, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the world-renowned anti-hate institutio­n, has described it quite properly as “an essential manifestat­ion of anti-Semitism.”

That educated men like William Latson can take such public positions tells us that it's not necessaril­y confined to the racist margins.

So there is no doubt that Facebook did the right thing. And perhaps by doing so, fewer more vulnerable minds than Latson's will be polluted by hatred.

We' ll see. It's still one thing for Facebook to enact the policy, but quite another to enforce it.

If it does, Latson's young charges will benefit, even if he doesn't.

Canadian Jewish Record

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