Facebook, finally enacting a measure long called on by critics, will prohibit any content that "denies or distorts the Holocaust."
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, in a post announcing the policy change on Monday, said he has "struggled with the tension between standing for free expression and the harm caused by minimising or denying the horror of the Holocaust."
"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," Mr Zuckerberg said. "Drawing the right lines between what is and isn't acceptable speech isn't straightforward, but with the current state of the world, I believe this is the right balance."
The social-media giant made the decision based on the "well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people," Monika Bickert, Facebook's VP of content policy, wrote in a blog post on Monday.
She noted that Facebook also recently banned anti-Semitic stereotypes "about the collective power of Jews that often depicts them running the world or its major institutions."
Ms Bickert specifically cited a recent survey of US adults 18-39 that found almost one-fourth said they believed the Holocaust either was a myth, that it had been exaggerated or they weren't sure it actually happened.
About 63 per cent of respondents did not know that six million Jews were exterminated by the Nazi regime, and 36 per cent thought the number of those murdered was "two million or fewer" per the survey, commissioned by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Starting later in 2020, Facebook will direct users who search for terms associated with the Holocaust or its denial to "credible information" from third-party sources, according to Ms Bickert.
Facebook's announcement that it is banning Holocaust denial content comes after it was targeted by the Stop Hate for Profit campaign, launched by groups including the NAACP, Common Sense Media and the Anti-Defamation League.
The initiative was joined by hundreds of companies who pledged to suspend advertising on Facebook-owned platforms temporarily, with the goal of spurring the company to more aggressively block hate speech on its services.
"By taking the critical step to remove Holocaust denial content, Facebook is showing that it recognises Holocaust denial for what it truly is: a form of anti-Semitism and therefore hate speech," World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder said in a statement.
The ADL said it has been urging Facebook since 2011 to classify Holocaust denial on its platform as a form of hate speech.
"Whatever forces led Facebook to make this decision, we believe it will have a positive impact on the experience of Jewish users on their platform," ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. "While we are relieved to learn this news, we also would note that platform decisions of this nature are only as good as the companies' enforcement.
"Facebook now needs to reassure the global community that it is taking meaningful and comprehensive steps to ensure that Holocaust deniers are no longer able to take advantage of Facebook's various platforms to spread antisemitism and hate."
To date, Facebook has banned more than 250 white supremacist organisations and last week prohibited all content from groups affiliated with QAnon, the pro-Trump conspiracy and disinformation movement that has sprung up on the last three years.
In the second quarter of 2020, Facebook removed 22.5 million pieces of hate speech from its platform in the second quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, Facebook still has a major misinformation problem - and, in fact, users engage with misleading or false information today more than three times as much as they did leading up to the 2016 US election, according to a new study from public-policy think tank German Marshall Fund.
The study found that overall on Facebook, likes, comments and shares of articles from news outlets that "repeatedly publish verifiably false content" has increased 102 per cent from Q3 of 2016 to the third quarter of 2020.
In addition, Facebook user engagement with content from publishers that "fail to gather and present information responsibly" - especially Fox News, Daily Wire and Breitbart News - has grown 293 per cent over the same time period, per the German Marshall Fund study.
