American Jewish Committee (AJC) praised Facebook’s decision to remove all Holocaust denial and distortion posts from the social media platform — and to prevent any such posts in the future under the company’s hate speech policy.
“Facebook’s decision to ban Holocaust denial and distortion postings is profoundly significant,” said AJC CEO David Harris. “With knowledge of the systematic Nazi murder of six million Jews waning in the United States and around the world, particularly among young people, the power and credibility of Facebook are vital to preserving the facts of the most documented genocide in history, and helping maintain the guardrails against any possible recurrence. There shouldn’t be a sliver of doubt about what the Nazi German regime did, nor should such a mega-platform as Facebook be used by antisemites to peddle their grotesque manipulation of history.”
In part, the Facebook announcement comes after a series of conversations between AJC and Facebook representatives in both the United States and Europe, a key aspect of the global Jewish advocacy organization’s ongoing engagement with social media companies to combat antisemitism and other forms of hate and bigotry.
“Today’s welcome announcement, noting AJC’s role, constitutes a significant victory in the battle against Holocaust denial, which, make no mistake about it, is nothing other than unvarnished antisemitism,” said Harris.
Commenting on the company’s work with AJC, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told Harris: “The communication we have had with you, and other close partners, has mattered, it really has, because these external perspectives help us improve our policies. Our experience with AJC has been that you are people who we can really trust and learn from.”
