Facebook sorry for removing Anne Frank Center holocaust victims image

Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg.
Photo by Chip
Somodevilla/Getty Images

• Facebook has apologised to the Anne Frank Center for
  removing an article it posted which featured an image of naked
  child holocaust victims.
• Facebook said the post was removed because it featured
  nude images of children, which is banned on the platform. It
  later restored the post.
• It’s not the first time Facebook’s moderation process
  has failed to take historical context into account.

Facebook has apologised to the Anne Frank Center for removing an
article it posted calling for more Holocaust education. The post
featured an image of child Holocaust victims, naked and
emaciated.

The Anne Frank Center asked Facebook on Wednesday to clarify why
it had removed the post. It also highlighted that
Facebook allows Holocaust denial on its platform, which it
viewed as hypocrisy.

“While Facebook removes the AFC’s post promoting the need to
educate on the past, it continues to allow pages and posts that
directly deny the reality of the deaths of more than six million
people. Holocaust denial dehumanizes people. It makes thousands
feel unsafe. It violates the very standards Facebook lays out for
it users. Yet these hate-filled propaganda pages remain,” an Anne
Frank Center spokeswoman told Business Insider.

Six hours later Facebook apologised, saying that the post had
been removed because it featured nude images of children, which
are banned on the platform. It also restored the post.

It is not clear whether the image was automatically flagged by
Facebook’s algorithm or reported by a user. Facebook did not
elaborate when asked by Business Insider.

This is not the first time Facebook has had trouble with
historical context. In July it apologized for
flagging the Declaration of Independence as hate speech, and

museums in Belgium published an open letter to Mark
Zuckerberg after they found nude paintings by Rubens were
being censored on the platform.

The Anne Frank Center told Business Insider it accepts Facebook’s
apology. “We understand the difficulty in assessing the context
of potentially controversial content. That said, it shouldn’t
have taken us publicly calling out Facebook to restore our post.
Hopefully, Facebook can revise their protocols,” said a
spokeswoman.

“If Facebook is serious about its community standards it should
start tackling Holocaust denial and not the organizations who are
trying to educate people on discrimination, facts, and history,”
she added.