The sister of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has denied that he defended the rights of Holocaust deniers, slammed such people’s “hateful, disgusting rhetoric” – but said banning them from social media “will not make them go away,” according to a report.
Randi Zuckerberg’s comments to CNNMoney came a day after her brother drew fire for telling tech news site Recode’s Kara Swisher that some Holocaust deniers “aren’t intentionally getting it wrong,” so Facebook would not delete their posts.
“As a leader in the Jewish community, and someone who has worked at the ground floor of social media, I felt a responsibility to weigh in,” she wrote.
Her brother earlier told Swisher that although Holocaust denial was “deeply offensive” it should not be removed from Facebook.
“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,” he said. “I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong.”
Randi Zuckerberg, an early Facebook employee, said her brother “could have chosen his words differently,” but she praised him for “navigating this incredibly difficult new world where the notion of free speech is constantly changing.”
And she expressed regret that a social media platform that has connected Jewish groups and united people across the globe also can be used as a weapon against them.
“Unfortunately, when we give a voice to everyone, we give it to people who use that voice for good and to people who abuse that voice,” she wrote. “Organizations doing impactful work now have more powerful tools than ever before, yet the nasty dark underbelly that exists right beneath the surface has access to those exact same tools.”
But banning Holocaust deniers and others who spew hate and bigotry won’t make them go away, she said.
“While it can be appalling to see what some people say, I don’t think living in a sterile, Stepford-like online community where we simply press the delete button on the ugly reality of how people feel is helpful either,” she wrote.
“As much as I disagree with Holocaust deniers having a voice at all, the reality is that it is not currently considered a crime in the United States, and if we want our social networks to remove this hateful speech and follow the lead of many countries in Europe who denounce it as criminal, we need to expand the conversation more broadly and legislate at a national level,” she wrote.
Amid widespread condemnation, Mark Zuckerberg told Recode:
“I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that.”
He added: “Of course if a post crossed a line into advocating for violence or hate against a particular group, it would be removed… These issues are very challenging but I believe that often the best way to fight offensive bad speech is with good speech.”
Despite her stance, his sister called on the public to insist that tech companies and elected leaders “keep working with as much transparency as possible to keep revisiting these policies and to be ready to act swiftly at the fine line where speech turns to action.”
“I wish that these platforms didn’t give a voice to those who cry out for divestment from Israel, make anti-Jewish remarks, and many of the other issues affecting our community today,” she wrote. “But silencing everyone – or worse, silencing selectively – would be far more nefarious.”
