About half of Holocaust-related public content on messaging service Telegram denies or distorts the facts about the killing of six million European Jews during the Holocaust.
About half of Holocaust-related publicity on Telegram messaging service that denies or distorts the facts about the killing of six million European Jews during the Holocaust, according to a new study by United Nation cultural agency.
The UNESCO report found that 80% of public messages in German about the Nazi genocide during the Second World War denied or distorted the facts, and the same was true for 50% of posts in English. and French about the Holocaust.
The study analyzed 4,000 Holocaust-related posts across 5 social media background and noticed disapproval or distortion in 19% of the above content Twitter17% above TikTok8% on Facebook and 3% on Instagram.
The report Distortion is defined as posts that glorify the genocide, smear or blame its victims, equate it with other facts such as Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians, or omit the facts. about Nazi perpetrators and their collaborators.
Asked about the report, a Telegram spokesperson said: “Telegram is a platform for free speech where anyone is welcome to peacefully express opinions, including those which we disagree.”
A spokesperson said posts that glorify or encourage violence or its perpetrators are banned and removed through censorship or user reporting.
Launched in 2013, Dubai-based Telegram is active in 155 countries, according to tech website Backlinko. The other social media companies mentioned in the report did not respond to requests for comment.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement: “We must never forget how easily hate speech can turn to hate crime; ignorance or indifference can lead to to intolerance; or how complicit silence in the face of bigotry is”.
“Today, cracks are impossible to ignore,” says Guterres.
He said the findings suggest that a strong link between Holocaust denial and other online violence stems from racism, deviance and xenophobia.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platform owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, while TikTok is owned by China’s ByteDance. Twitter is facing the possibility of a takeover from Elon Musk, the richest man in the world.
UNESCO found that even on censored platforms, denialists and misrepresenters evade censors by using humorous memes and parodies to normalize anti-Semitic ideas. .
The government recommends that governments invest in developing the savvy of public media and platforms to take action against such content and redirect to verified information.
