Twitter follows Facebook in banning Holocaust denial

• A Twitter spokeswoman confirmed to Business Insider on Thursday that its policy on “Hateful Conduct” would apply to Holocaust denial.
• She said “attempts to deny or diminish” violent events would fall under that policy.
• This comes after Facebook changed its policies on Monday to ban Holocaust-denial content from its platform.
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Twitter has followed Facebook in booting Holocaust-denial content off its platform, Bloomberg was the first to report Wednesday.

Although Twitter has not introduced a new policy on Holocaust denial, a spokeswoman confirmed to Business Insider that Holocaust denial would be banned under the platform’s rules on “Hateful Conduct.”

“Our Hateful Conduct Policy prohibits a wide range of behaviour, including making references to violent events or types of violence where protected categories were the primary victims, or attempts to deny or diminish such events,” the spokeswoman said.

The line, “attempts to deny or diminish such events” is not stated on the platform’s “Hateful Conduct” page, and represents a shift in interpretation of Twitter’s policy.

“Twitter’s mission is to serve the public conversation and ensure the service is a place where people can express themselves safely. We strongly condemn antisemitism, and hateful conduct has absolutely no place on our service,” the Twitter spokeswoman said.

“We also have a robust glorification of violence policy in place and take action against content that glorifies or praises historical acts of violence and genocide, including the Holocaust,” she added.

This comes after Facebook announced Monday it would block Holocaust denial on its platform, a U-turn from its previous stance.

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously said that although he found Holocaust denial abhorrent, he would not restrict users from voicing it.

Facebook’s policy does not extend to any other genocides, such as the Armenian and Rwandan genocides. Twitter did not explicitly say whether its policy applies to other genocides, but the spokeswoman’s wording around “violent events” suggests it may have a broader policy than Facebook.