Facebook And Its Policy On Content Related To The Holocaust

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The Holocaust is the most tragic event of the 21st century. Around 6 Million people were killed just because they did not adhere to the same principles, race or religion as the Nazi party. The Holocaust wasn’t just traumatic for the people suffering from it in that time but it has also left a haunting effect on the generations to come. To this day people mourn the event however there are still many people who seem to be following the footsteps on the Nazi Party. Globalization has shown us that it is inevitable for the human race to be dependent on each other. Earth is our home and we are all in this together. Discriminating against each other on the basis of race or religion is downright insensible.

Even in the 21st century, where the human race is considered to be more accepting of other people’s ideologies, there are still such elements out there that promote racism and ethical violence. This was highlighted more when there are anti-Semitic pages being created on Facebook.  Social media is a powerful tool. It played its part in the Arab spring which shows that social media has the power to bring revolutions at international level. So what happens when there are anti-Semitic pages on Facebook? Not only do people use it to arrange anti sematic activities but uninformed people who join these groups or pages are exposed to false information that is nothing more than propaganda. So those people go from being uninformed to being ill informed. Not having knowledge about something is one thing but having wrong information about something can be more dangerous.

Where Did Facebook Stand A Few Years Back

A few years back, Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg was asked about the increasing anti-Semitism on Facebook. Zuckerberg, who happens to be Jewish himself said that he does not like or condone such content on Facebook but blocking such content would mean that he had to blocking freedom of speech. Zuckerberg is a big advocate of freedom of speech and when he was asked this question about anti sematic content he faced a clash between letting people say hateful things or block their freedom of speech. At that time, Zuckerberg decided that it was more important to let people say what they want. He felt that it was important to hear all sides and that can only be done if you allow and encourage freedom of speech.

Where Does Facebook Stand Now And What Made Mark Zuckerberg Change His Stance On The Issue

Recently, we have seen a change in Facebook’s stance on the hateful and false anti sematic content. Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg has said that he still encourages freedom of speech however in this particular matter, freedom of speech has given rise to many instances which resulted in violence and discriminatory behavior towards the Jewish community all over the world. This is why Facebook has introduced a new policy where such content that distorts information about the holocaust or completely denies it will be banned from the platform. Not just that, people searching for similar content will be directed to posts that actually educated them about the horrific event. Facebook’s new policy on the matter was appreciated by Jews and non-Jews from all over the world.

Recent studies have shown that there is a large group of people in the US who still believe that holocaust wasn’t real or that it wasn’t as horrific as it is claimed to be. Facebook’s top management knew that if they did not change their policy then they would be slightly responsible for letting such content spread all over the internet.

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