H EADLINES
Facebook Will Now Ban Holocaust Denial
FACEBOOK ANNOUNCED
that it will now ban any
posts that deny or distort the
Holocaust, a landmark change
from its previous policy.

For years, Facebook and its
CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, had
defended Holocaust denial as
a misguided but legitimate
form of expression. In 2018,
regarding Holocaust denial,
he said, “I don’t believe that
our platform should take that
down because I think there are
things that diff erent people get
wrong.” LEGAL
DIRECTORY HEALTHCARE
DIRECTORY NATIONAL
BEN SALES | JTA.ORG
That approach garnered
widespread outcry from
scholars and anti-Semitism
watchdogs. On Oct. 12, Zuckerberg
wrote in a Facebook post
that he now believes banning
Holocaust denial “is the right
balance.” “I’ve struggled with the
Th is summer, the Anti-
Defamation League, NAACP
and other civil rights groups
organized a boycott of Facebook
in which 1,000 companies,
including major corpora-
tions, paused advertising on
the site for at least one month
in protest of its lack of action
against hate speech, including
10% of respondents believed
Jews caused the Holocaust,
while half of respondents said
they had seen Holocaust denial
online. Th e World Jewish Congress
has been speaking with
Facebook about how to combat
anti-Semitism since 2016, and
has held daily meetings leading
LOUIS B. HIMMELSTEIN
& ASSOCIATES, P.C.

ATTORNEYS AT LAW
PERSONAL INJURY ONLY
Free initial consultation.

Free home & hospital visits.

Slip and Fall cases
Nursing Home abuse
No fee till recovery
215-790-9996 1420 Walnut Street, Ste 1000
Philadelphia, PA 19102
ELDER LAW
AND ESTATE PLANNING
Wills Trusts
Powers of Attorney
Living Wills
Probate Estates
Protect assets from
nursing home
LARRY SCOTT AUERBACH, ESQ.

CERTIFIED ELDER LAW ATTORNEY
CPA-PFS, J.D., LL.M.,MBA
1000 Easton Road
Abington, PA 19001
For consultation call
215-517-5566 or
1-877-987-8788 Toll Free
Website: www.Lsauerbach.com
12 OCTOBER 15, 2020
Overwhelmed with the
thought of moving to
Independent Senior Living?
WHICH TYPE OF
COMMUNITY IS RIGHT FOR ME?
55+ Active Adult?
Continuing Care Retirement
Community? (CCRC)
Rent or purchase?
Can I afford it?
What care do I need?
How will I sell my house?
How do I downsize my stuff?
Can I bring my dog?
We Educate, Guide and Advocate
for Families as they move to
Independent Living
Helping Seniors
for more than 25 years.

Call David L. Reibstein
215-870-7362 Stay tuned for an updated website:
www.S3Living.com Mark Zuckerberg at the Breakthrough Prize awards ceremony at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain
View, California, on Nov. 3, 2019.

Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images via JTA.org
tension between standing
for free expression and the
harm caused by minimizing
or denying the horror of the
Holocaust,” he wrote. “My own
thinking has evolved as I’ve
seen data showing an increase
in anti-Semitic violence, as
have our wider policies on
hate speech.”
Th e change comes aft er
months of activism by anti-dis-
crimination groups pushing
Facebook to change its policies
on hate speech in general and
Holocaust denial in partic-
ular. It also comes amid rising
anti-Semitism in the United
States and Europe, and weeks
ahead of a presidential election
that analysts and govern-
ment agencies fear will spark
violence from white suprema-
cist groups.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Holocaust denial. Th e Claims
Conference, which coordinates
restitution and reparations
payments for Holocaust survi-
vors, organized a campaign
called #NoDenyingIt in which
Holocaust survivors appealed
directly to Zuckerberg via
video to take action against
Holocaust denial.

Other Jewish organiza-
tions worked in consultation
with Facebook to persuade the
site to ban Holocaust denial.

Facebook’s statement credited
the World Jewish Congress and
American Jewish Committee
with advising on the new
policy. It also cited a recent poll
showing a lack of knowledge
regarding the Holocaust among
Americans younger than 40.

Th e poll found that more than
up to this policy change, said
Yfat Barak-Cheney, the group’s
director of international aff airs.

She said her organization
preferred engagement with
Facebook rather than external
activism because, through her
meetings, she saw the social
media giant gradually move
toward banning Holocaust
denial. “We have fl agged to them
Holocaust denial, over and over,
as an issue on the platform, as
an issue in principle that needs
to be recognized as anti-Sem-
itism and hate speech,”
Barak-Cheney said. “Holocaust
denial is not a studying and
discussion about historical
facts. It’s a tool to spread hatred
against Jews.”
She added, “Th ey’ve adapted
and they’ve come to understand
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM