Facebook Yanks Two Holocaust Hate Groups

Two Facebook groups dedicated to Holocaust denial have been removed from the social networking site because their members were using the groups as a forum to promote hate, Facebook said Monday.

"The group description didn't promote hate but the members were beginning to use it as a forum to promote hate through their wall posts," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in an e-mail.

Links to the groups in question – titled "Based on the facts … There was no Holocaust" and "Holocaust is a Holohoax" – now simply redirect to the Facebook main page. Three other Holocaust denial groups, however, remain on the site.
"We are monitoring these groups and if the discussion among members degrades to the point of promoting hate or violence, despite whatever disclaimer the group description provides, we will take them down," Schnitt said "This has happened in the past, especially when controversial groups are publicized."

The issue made headlines last week when attorney Brian Cuban, brother of tech entrepreneur Mark Cuban, wrote a blog post that challenged Facebook to remove the groups. He argued, in part, that since Holocaust denial is illegal in some of the countries in which Facebook has a presence, these groups should be banned.

Last week, Facebook responded that it already bans these groups in countries where Holocaust denial laws exist. The site removes content that threatens violence towards people but does not remove content that speaks out against countries, political entities, or ideas. Holocaust denial falls into the latter category, Facebook said.

TechCrunch posted a scathing critique of Facebook's policy this morning, taking the site to task for allowing the denial groups while cracking down on photos of women breastfeeding. "Jew Haters Welcome at Facebook, as Long as They Aren't Lactating," the headline reads. He slammed Facebook for allowing denial groups to post photos of naked children used in Nazi medical experiments, likening them to child porn, and called the site creators cowards.

Schnitt responded to the TechCrunch story in its comments section, reiterating that while Facebook finds Holocaust denial to be "repugnant and ignorant" it is not a violation of its terms of service.

"We believe in Facebook's mission that giving people tools to make the world more open is a better way to combat ignorance or deception than censorship, though we recognize that others — including those at the company, disagree. We may be fools for doing the former but not 'cowards,'" Schnitt wrote.

In regards to the breastfeeding photos, Schnitt said Facebook only bans photos of naked women who happen to be breastfeeding, not every single breastfeeding photo.

Cuban, meanwhile, wrote another blog entry this time addressing Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg directly.

His original argument regarding countries that ban Holocaust denial, he wrote, was "short-sighted [and a] back door lawyer's approach" to the debate.

"By claiming open discussion as the rationale for allowing these groups to exist, Facebook is playing games with semantics," Cuban wrote. "Facebook is taking form over substance to protect their imaginary subjective corporate line in the sand they have drawn."

Cuban asked Zuckerberg to define "open discussion" and to reveal if it consulted any experts before coming up with its policy.