Twitter once again accused of turning a blind eye to antisemitism. On August 21, the Auschwitz Memorial, which regularly publishes portraits of Jews murdered during the Holocaust, lamented the lack of sanction against an account that posted Holocaust-denying content. In response to a message that evokes the memory by Renée Kaufmana 3-year-old French girl gassed in 1942, a netizen responded with a drawing that evoked “a fable.”
Initially, Twitter (now called X) refused to remove the content and sanction the author. And this despite its terms of use, which in theory prohibit Holocaust denial. After the publication of a message from the Auschwitz Memorial strongly criticizing this election and seen 1.5 million times, the platform finally I deleted the message and suspended the author’s account.
Very theoretical rules.
But as the Memorial reminds us, Twitter’s fight against Holocaust denial is still far from finding a concrete application. On the morning of this August 22, the institution evoked another denialist message from a Twitter account, this time followed by 100,000 people on the platform. This same account later shared another user’s message, evoking “the Holocaust narrative”, followed by 8,000 users.
The two accounts have the particularity of being subscribers to Twitter’s paid offer. However, a recent study by the Counter for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) showed that the platform refused to remove the vast majority of hate messages posted by users who pay for its “premium” services.
If social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have long refused to sanction Holocaust denialist content (authorized in the United States), in 2020 they have revised their position.
Even before Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the platform was sued by several French anti-racist associations for its lack of moderation on hateful content, including anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying content. The company was ultimately convicted in March 2023 for its lack of transparency regarding moderation.
In early 2023, Twitter was also sued in Germany for its lack of moderation in relation to anti-Semitic content. Following his acquisition of the platform, Elon Musk made numerous layoffs, especially in the moderation service.
Source: BFM TV
