Twitch receives highest mark for efforts toward removing Holocaust denial
Twitch received a B, while Twitter, YouTube and TikTok earned a C. Facebook, Discord and Reddit "barely passed" with a D. No platform was awarded an A.
By ZACHARY KEYSERThe lobby of Twitch Interactive Inc, a social video platform and gaming community owned by Amazon, is seen in San Francisco, California(photo credit: ELIJAH NOUVELAGE / REUTERS)
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) gave Twitch the highest marks out of any other social network with reference to its efforts to combat Holocaust denial across the dedicated streaming platform.The ADL issued a "report card" for each of the ten largest social media networks, which scrutinized platforms such as Twitch, TikTok, Youtube, Facebook and Discord, among others - presenting them with a final grade after reviewing their policies toward Holocaust denial.The review took a deep look into each platform's terms of service agreements in order to discover whether there are explicit Holocaust denial policies, how the platform addresses the issue in the case of an infraction and what actions are taken, if any.Twitch received a B, while Twitter, YouTube and TikTok earned a C. Facebook, Discord and Reddit "barely passed" with a D. No platform was awarded an A.While Twitch and Twitter ranked closely in succession to one another, Twitter did not have any explicit Holocaust denial policy even though it has previously taken action against it, earning Twitch the highest grade. They were the only platforms in the study who had taken "immediate action" when Holocaust denial content was reported.Even though it earned a D, Facebook updated its hate speech policy within its new terms of service agreement in October, banning any content that either denies or distorts the Holocaust from appearing on the social media platform, and has tailored its content management algorithm to remove posts that contravene the rule.However, the reasoning for the grade stems from it's failure to respond to reports from anonymous users, claiming that the majority of the content reported by the ADL does not violate their terms of service or community standards.Facebook has a limited manual review system, but the bulk of the review work relies on AI. Lack of responsiveness was a major factor for many of the platforms receiving low grades.Other platforms have also made efforts towards removing Holocaust denial, putting safeguards in place to prevent the content from being seen and redirecting users to credible sources about the Holocaust.YouTube directs users who search for terms such as "Holocaust denial" or "holohoax" to credible sources that debunk those theories, while TikTok and Roblox do not allow users to even search for the terms.“In recent years, content denying the Holocaust has appeared on an array of social media platforms, largely because those companies have not been nimble enough or taken the issue seriously,” said ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt. “While some platforms have finally stepped up their efforts to stop the amplification of denial, others are still struggling to address antisemitism and Holocaust denial effectively."This is truly shameful at a time when antisemitic conspiracy theories are spreading globally, some outrageously based on the big lie that the Holocaust never happened,” he said.
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