Speaking at The Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg discussed ways that the social media company is aggressively working to confront hate speech and Holocaust denial.
In outlining Facebook’s strategy, Sandberg explained that the company has been working closely with the World Jewish Congress in a number of areas including its efforts to provide accurate reliable information about the Holocaust to users of the platform.
Watch Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s full remarks
Sandberg said that “we use our platform to encourage people to get accurate information about the Holocaust, about antisemitism. . . . If you look for the Holocaust or Holocaust denial on our services, you’re encouraged to visit aboutholocaust.org where you can find the facts about the Holocaust very clearly laid out. I’m so grateful for this partnership with UNESCO and the World Jewish Congress, including my friend Ronald Lauder whose vision helped make this a reality.”
In July of this year, the WJC announced an expansion of its partnership with Facebook to connect users of the social media platform worldwide searching in 12 languages with authoritative information about the Holocaust available on the website AboutHolocaust.org. The WJC developed AboutHolocaust.org with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, as a comprehensive, accessible online resource providing essential information about the history of the Holocaust and its legacy.
When Facebook users search in any of 12 languages for terms associated with the Holocaust or denial of it, the social media platform will prompt them to visit AboutHolocaust.org. At that site, visitors are provided facts about the genocide of European Jewry and the mass killings of other national, ethnic, political and other groups by Nazi Germany and its accomplices during World War II.
The Facebook prompt was first initiated on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, for English language users only. As of today, users searching terms in the following languages will be prompted to visit AboutHolocaust.org: Arabic, English, French, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Farsi, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, and Portuguese. Facebook may add additional languages later.
The Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism – Remember-ReAct – was held on 13 October 2021. The participants included heads of state and government, international organizations and social media platforms, all invited by Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. The programme focused on four main themes: Holocaust remembrance; Holocaust education; Antisemitism on social media platforms; and Combating antisemitism and other forms of racism in all spheres of life. During the conference, many concrete pledges were made to strengthen Holocaust remembrance efforts and to combat racism.
