Mark Zuckerberg has been criticised by Jewish groups and anti-racism organisations for suggesting Holocaust denial should be allowed on Facebook because it could be unintentional. In an interview on Wednesday, the Facebook founder said he found Holocaust denial “deeply offensive”, but added: “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 … It’s hard to impugn intent and to understand the intent.”

Zuckerberg, who is Jewish, later retracted his remarks, issuing an update that said: “I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that.” But his comment came too late to stop criticism from Jewish groups, both for the specifics of his statement and the general practice of allowing Holocaust denial to thrive on his platform. Stephen Silverman, director of investigations and enforcement at the Campaign Against Antisemitism, told the Guardian: “Mark Zuckerberg’s remarks are deeply irresponsible. There is no such thing as benign Holocaust denial.(theguardian)…[+]