Facebook stays soft on Holocaust denial
FACEBOOK IS facing questions on how it deals with Holocaust denial material posted on its platforms.
Leaked guidelines to the company’s online moderators suggested such postings were tolerated even in countries where revisionism was illegal.
The files, leaked to the Guardian, advised moderators to take down denial material in only four of the 14 countries where it is outlawed — France, Germany, Israel and Austria — because legal action was not actively pursued in the other 10.
One leaked document said the company “does not welcome local law that stands as an obstacle to an open and connected world” and will only consider blocking or hiding Holocaust denial messages and photographs if “we face the risk of getting blocked in a country or a legal risk”.
The leaked documents also showed polices guiding moderators on postings about violence, hate speech, pornography, self-harm, animal cruelty and other topics.
Critics claim Facebook has become unable to control its content because it has become too big too quickly.
CST’s director of communications Mark Gardner told the JC: “CST works quite closely with Facebook on these issues and it is good to see that they are addressing the problem in a serious and thoughtful way.
“There are, however, still inconsistencies in the guidelines and in how they are applied by moderators, and there is still far too much antisemitism on their platform.”
In a statement on Monday, Monica Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, said: “We work hard to make Facebook as safe as possible, while enabling free speech.”