WASHINGTON, DC (Press Release) — Alyza D. Lewin, president of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, congratulated the Meta Oversight Board’s decision to ban Holocaust denial from Facebook and Instagram.
“We commend Meta’s Oversight Board for recognizing the inexorable logic that using antisemitic conspiracy theories to attempt to falsely deny mass atrocities conclusively proven in court and admitted by the perpetrators is antisemitic, and consequently falls within Meta’s hate speech policy,” Lewin said. “While free speech is vital, Meta has chosen to prohibit hate speech on its own platforms. When companies do that, they can’t leave out antisemitic hate speech – they must provide Jewish users with the same protections as everyone else.”
“We know that online hate helps drive the record levels of antisemitism we are seeing across the country, as well as the horrific discrimination against and harassment of Jewish students we see on campus,” Lewin added. “If Meta implements this decision properly, it will serve as a very important step in beating back spiking anti-Jewish hate.”
Just days before January 27th International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Meta’s Oversight Board – an independent entity empowered to review Meta’s decision about content moderation on its platforms – decided that Meta had erred by leaving certain content denying the Holocaust on its platforms. The Board explained that Holocaust denial is antisemitic hate speech, as the Brandeis Center argued in its public comment in the case, and consequently violated Meta’s content moderation policies.
The Brandeis Center explained that Holocaust denial is antisemitic and consequently fits within Meta’s hate speech policy. The Brandeis Center noted that the Holocaust was “the most clearly-documented genocide in history” and proven beyond a reasonable doubt in front of the Nuremberg Tribunal. Consequently, deniers resort to conspiracy theories laden with traditional antisemitic stereotypes in order to deny or ignore the massive historical evidence. Denial and distortion have consequently been deemed antisemitic under international human rights law and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of Holocaust denial and distortion. The Brandeis Center emphasized that the U.S. government and the United Nations, among others, had specifically called on social media companies to act against Holocaust denial and distortion. On Tuesday, the Oversight Board adopted the Brandeis Center’s reasoning in its decision, specifically citing the Brandeis Center’s comment.
Consistent with Brandeis’ recommendations, the Board called on Meta to take concrete steps to ensure it is functionally able to ban Holocaust-denying content, such as improving its algorithms to identify prohibited content, providing better training for human content moderators charged with evaluating users’ requests to remove content, and emphasizing the need for Meta to address Holocaust distortion as well as Holocaust denial.
The Brandeis Center’s comment was submitted by international law expert and former Brandeis Center senior counsel, Arthur Traldi, and Lewin. The Brandeis Center has also produced a fact sheet and webinar on Holocaust denial as part of its ongoing work against anti-Semitism.
*
Preceding provided by The Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law