HOLOCAUST COMMENT PUTS FACEBOOK ON SPOT

NEW YORK Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is clarifying his stance pertaining to Holocaust deniers after getting some blowback on social media.

Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, said in an interview with Recode that Facebook posts denying the Holocaust took place would not be removed automatically. Zuckerberg said he thinks that there are things “that different people get wrong,” and that he doesn’t think they are “intentionally” getting it wrong.

Those comments landed with a thud online.

Zuckerberg later sent an email to the Recode interviewer, Kara Swisher, attempting to expand on what he had said.

“I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that,” Zuckerberg wrote in the email.

Facebook has struggled over the past year to tamp down the global spread of rumours and political misinformation and explain what it will and won’t allow on its service after several high-profile mistakes.

Hours after Zuckerberg’s interview, the company announced it’s going to start taking down misinformation that could lead to violence.