(CNS News) — The World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) partnered with Facebook to expand accessibility to accurate information on the Holocaust to “combat antisemitism and Holocaust denial.”
When Facebook users search a term associated with the Holocaust or the denial thereof, they will be prompted to visit AboutHolocaust.org, a site developed by WJC and UNESCO to educate the public with comprehensive and factual information on the mass genocide that occurred under the Nazis during World War II.
“In the context of the global rise of misinformation, social media platforms have a role to play in combating false narratives and hate, and redirecting users to reliable sources of information,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.
First initiated on Jan. 27, International Holocaust Rememberance Day, the Facebook prompt currently appears for searches in Arabic, English, French, Polish, Russian and Spanish. The Chinese, Farsi, German, Hebrew, Hungarian and Portuguese languages will be added later this month.
Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said during the prompt’s initial launch in January, “I am grateful for all that the World Jewish Congress and UNESCO do to honor the six million people who were murdered just for being Jewish…. We are proud to partner with them to help people learn the facts about the Holocaust and hear the stories of those who survived.”
“At a time of rising hate and intolerance, taking time to read and reflect on what happened to Jews and others in Europe is more important than ever,” she said.
In addition to the 6 million Jews exterminated, the Nazi regime killed an estimated 11 million other people for political and religious reasons, including Soviet soldiers and civilians, Polish civilians, Serb civilians, and gypsies, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In October 2020, Facebook announced that it would remove Holocaust denial content to “fight hate on our services.” Directing users to AboutHolocaust.org is the company’s latest effort in combating anti-Semitic and Holocaust-denying content on their platform.
Facebook’s Public Policy Director, Israel & Jewish Diaspora, Jordana Cutler said, “By expanding this tool to reach more people in more languages, Facebook is taking an active role to fulfill the promise of ‘Never Again.’”