Zuckerberg made the announcement in a Facebook post.
"We've taken down posts that praise hate crimes or mass murder, including the Holocaust. But with rising anti-Semitism, we're expanding our policy to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust as well," the post read. "If people search for the Holocaust on Facebook, we'll start directing you to authoritative sources to get accurate information."
The update reverses
In 2018, Zuckerberg said in a Recode Decode podcast interview that the social media company does not want to ban Holocaust denial posts because people should be able to make unintentional mistakes.
"I don't think they're intentionally getting it wrong," Zuckerberg said on the podcast at the time.
Facebook Vice President of Content Policy
"Today's announcement marks another step in our effort to fight hate on our services," Bickert said in the statement. "Our decision is supported by the well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people. According to a recent survey of adults in the US aged 18-39, almost a quarter said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, that it had been exaggerated or they weren't sure."
Bickert added enforcement of the updated policy wouldn't happen overnight since it takes time "to train our reviewers and systems on enforcement."
Bickert also said that online attacks against many groups are increasing worldwide, according to organizations that study trends in hate speech, and that
Among those steps,
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