X, formerly known as Twitter, has taken down a Holocaust-denying post after facing criticism from the Auschwitz Museum. Initially, the social media platform had deemed the post as not violating its rules.
The offensive post was in response to a tweet from the museum, where they shared the story of a three-year-old Jewish girl who tragically lost her life in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The reply to the museum’s tweet referred to her death as a “fairy tale” and employed anti-Semitic stereotypes.
X’s policies explicitly state that Holocaust denial is strictly prohibited.
Horrific site
Auschwitz, located in Poland, witnessed the horrific murder of at least 1.1 million people, with almost one million of them being Jewish. Among the victims, over 200,000 were children and young individuals who faced brutal fates, including gas chambers, starvation, forced labor, and medical experiments.
According to a statement posted on X by the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, the museum had reported the offensive reply. However, they received an initial response from the platform, stating that, based on the “available information,” no rules had been violated.
X later clarified that this initial response was due to an error during the first review, and the post was eventually removed after a second review.
X policies
X’s policies categorically prohibit “violent event denial” under its guidelines on abusive behavior. The platform explicitly states that it does not permit content that denies mass killings, including events such as the Holocaust, school shootings, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters.
The X account responsible for the offensive post had only 20 followers. Although X has removed the specific post, the account remained accessible as of Monday at 17:00 GMT. The account contains other content that many would find offensive. The company is currently reviewing whether the account should face permanent suspension.
Elon Musk, who describes himself as a proponent of free speech, denies that there has been an increase in hate speech on the platform since he assumed control of X (formerly Twitter). In December, he claimed that hate speech had decreased by a third.
X acknowledges that its team responsible for monitoring hate speech on the platform is smaller since Musk’s takeover. However, it argues that its new approach, emphasizing a zero-tolerance policy for illegal content and de-amplifying and removing ads from lawful but offensive material, is more effective.
Musk’s takeover
Despite this, some argue that improvements are not evident. An Institute for Strategic Dialogue report suggested a significant and sustained increase in anti-Semitic posts on Twitter since Musk’s takeover in October.
The Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has also claimed that Twitter “fails to act on 99%” of hateful messages from accounts with Twitter Blue, the platform’s subscription service. According to CCDH, posts containing racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, or conspiracy content remained visible for days even after being reported.
