FB in fresh controversy over Holocaust denial

WASHINGTON: Facebook found itself embroiled anew in controversy on Thursday after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg argued the leading social network should not filter out posts denying the Holocaust. The comments by Zuckerberg drew fierce criticism and appeared to undermine Facebook’s latest effort to root out hate speech, violence and misinformation on its platform.

In an interview with tech website Recode on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said that while Facebook was dedicated to stopping the spread of fake news, it would not filter out posts just on the basis of being factually wrong -- including from Holocaust deniers and the conspiracy theory website Infowars.

"I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened," he said in the interview. "I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, 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."