The Atlantic

Mark Zuckerberg Is Doubly Wrong About Holocaust Denial

Facebook fails to comprehend the nature of Holocaust denial and other forms of bigotry—and so it's aiding their spread, instead of combatting them.
Source: Leah Millis / Reuters

This week, Mark Zuckerberg kicked off another firestorm about Facebook when he appeared to defend the intentions of Holocaust deniers on the platform. In an interview with Recode’s Kara Swisher, the Facebook CEO was asked why the site doesn’t just remove malevolent misinformation, like the claim that the Sandy Hook massacre never happened. Zuckerberg responded with an example from his own experience.

“I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened,” he said. “I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong, but I think it’s

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic5 min read
The Strangest Job in the World
This is an edition of the Books Briefing, our editors’ weekly guide to the best in books. Sign up for it here. The role of first lady couldn’t be stranger. You attain the position almost by accident, simply by virtue of being married to the president
The Atlantic6 min read
The Happy Way to Drop Your Grievances
Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. In 15th-century Germany, there was an expression for a chronic complainer: Greiner, Zanner, which can be translated as “whiner-grumbler.” It was no
The Atlantic6 min read
There’s Only One Way to Fix Air Pollution Now
It feels like a sin against the sanctitude of being alive to put a dollar value on one year of a human life. A year spent living instead of dead is obviously priceless, beyond the measure of something so unprofound as money. But it gets a price tag i

Related Books & Audiobooks