QUESTION #1

If YOU BECAME AWARE THAT A FACEBOOK EMPLOYEE WAS MAINTAINING A PERSONAL BLOG ADVOCATING HOLOCAUST DENIAL, WHAT WOULD YOUR RESPONSE BE, IF ANY?

QUESTION# 2 (ADDED JUNE 9, 1:55 PM)

IF YOU EXTENDED AN OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT AND SUBSEQUENTLY DISCOVERED THE INDIVIDUAL RAN A HOLOCAUST DENIAL WEB SITE, WOULD YOU STILL MAKE THE HIRE?

Facebook has taken great pains to point out that they have consulted “experts”  in coming to the conclusion that Holocaust Denial/ The fact of denying the Holocaust does not constitute “hate speech” under their terms of service(TOS).  In a interview on  CNN.com, Facebook representative Barry Schnitt stated:

“It’s a difficult decision to make. We have a lot of internal debate and we bring in experts to talk about it,” Schnitt said. “Just being offensive or objectionable doesn’t get it taken off Facebook. We want it [the site] to be a place where people can discuss all kinds of ideas, including controversial ones.”

In an email to Chris Matyszczyk on the CNET blog “Technically Correct” Barry Schnitt further stated:

“The experts we’ve talked to have generally been Internet law experts, free speech people, and experts on radicalism and technology. They haven’t been specifically related to the Holocaust but that is a good idea.”

Despite requests to Facebook as to the names of the experts that were consulted on the above issues and on the issue of whether Holocaust Denial constitutes hate speech, there has been no response.  CEO Mark Zuckerberg has  shown no transparency on this issue. I therefore decided to consult an expert of my own.

Professor Alan M. Dershowitz has been called “the nation’s most peripatetic civil liberties lawyer” and one of its “most distinguished defenders of individual rights,” “the best-known criminal lawyer in the world,” “the top lawyer of last resort,”  He is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.  Dershowitz, a graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School, joined the Harvard Law School faculty at age 25 after clerking for Judge David Bazelon and Justice Arthur Goldberg.

He has published more than 100 articles in magazines and journals such as The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Nation, Commentary, Saturday Review, The Harvard Law Review and the Yale Law Journal, and more than 300 of his articles have appeared in syndication in 50 national daily newspapers. Professor Dershowitz is the author of 27 fiction and non-fiction works with a worldwide audience. His most recent titles include Rights From Wrong, The Case For Israel, The Case For Peace, Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence and Preemption: A Knife that Cuts Both Ways, Finding Jefferson – A Lost Letter, A Remarkable Discovery, and The First Amendment In An Age of Terrorism.

You can dispute his qualifications if you like but I doubt there is a court in this country that would not admit him as an expert on hate speech,free speech or any 1st Amendment issue for that matter.

Here is the email I received from Professor Dershowitz regarding the issue of  Facebook’s tolerance of  Holocaust Denial Groups and whether it constitutes hate speech.

You are absolutely correct that Holocaust denial is hate speech. There are no Holocaust deniers who are not blatant antiSemites. Every Holocaust denial website also features antiSemitism. You are also right that transparency is the key. If Facebook took the position that it censors nothing,that would be one thing. But to espouse the substantive position that H denial is not hate speech is very dangerous and unacceptable.

An expert has spoken right to the point.  Are you listening Mark Zuckerberg?

President Barack Obama recently stated, “The  Holocaust Must Make World Vigilant Against Hatred”

He gets it.  He understands.  To Deny The Holocaust is to hate.

President Obama continues to honor the victims of hate and human tragedy this month.  He is set to visit the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany.

Buchenwald was established in in July 1937. It was one of the first concentration camps on German soil. Camp prisoners worked primarily as forced labor in local armament factories. Over 50,000 Jews and political prisoners died at the camp before it was liberated by American troops in April 1945.

President Obama’s great-uncle, Charlie Payne, served in the 89th Infantry Division during World War II and took part in in the liberation of the Buchenwald sub camp at Ohrdruf in 1945.

OUR PREZ GETS IT!

POPE BENEDICT XVI  GETS IT!   He recently stated:

“Holocaust Denial Is Intolerable”  and that any minimization of the Holocaust was unacceptable. The Pope  gets it even in the face of criticism and internal dissent on the subject.

FRENCH PRIME MINISTER NICHOLAS SARKOZY GETS IT!

“It is shocking, ” said the French President, “and it is unacceptable that someone in the 21st century can deny the Shoah, the martyrdom of the Jews.”

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL GETS IT!

“The mass murder of 6 million Jews, carried out in the name of Germany, has brought indescribable suffering to the Jewish people, Europe and the entire world.”

WORLD BUSINESS LEADERS GET IT!

In an interview done for Portfolio.com, Meg Whitman, then CEO of eBay, the worlds largest online site for the buying and selling of goods discussed the rational behind eBay’s decision to ban the sale of Nazi memorabilia.

Here is an excerpt from the extremely revealing interview discussing the decision.

Q. eBay has been criticized over the years for providing a platform for heinous commerce – whether its Nazi memorabilia or a serial killer’s shaved calluses.

A. “Murderabilia.”

Q. Thank you. What sort of soul-searching did this prompt in you?

A. ebay was originally founded with the notion that if the item was legal for sale in the country in which we were doing business, then it would be legal on eBay. And that’s pretty much how the company ran up until the first quarter of 1999. In the first quarter of 1999, there were a number of issues that caused me to say: is this something that we want? The very first categories of items we decided to ban were firearms, alcohol and tobacco. All were legal for sale over the Internet in the United States. But we made a decision that while they were perfectly legal, they were not something we wanted to be involved in. Frankly, it’s a judgment call. Our community of users pushed back on this, not because so many of them felt selling firearms was a great thing, but they were worried, well today firearms, next week maybe my category. There is now an eBay lookalike site that does nothing but sell firearms.

I said I understand that. But we are a big company. We are building a brand. We want to be admired and around for generations.

And it is the CEO who has to make those judgment calls. So over time, we’d make incremental calls – Nazi memorabilia was one. Perfectly legal for sale in the U.S. Not legal for sale in Germany or France. Ultimately we said: not a business we’re going to be in.

In the end, as Meg Whitman of Ebay stated, the decision to not allow the sale of Nazi memorabilia on eBay was ” a judgment call.”  It was good judgment!

MEG GETS IT!

FACEBOOK’S OWN CHIEF PRIVACY OFFICER CHRIS KELLY SEEMED TO GET IT WHEN HE STATED:

“Holocaust Denial Is Motivated By Hate”

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FACEBOOK MEMBERS GET IT!

Over 40k alone in the groups United Against Holocaust Denial On Facebook and Fight Holocaust Denial.

The decision of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to allow or not allow Holocaust Denial groups on Facebook is again a judgment call. Meg Whitman thought she was using good judgment when she banned the sale of all items “insensitive to the victims of human tragedy”.  You could substitute Facebook at pretty much every spot Meg Whitman was referring to eBay and the argument would still make sense.

I get it.  Do you get it?

The only ones who do not seem to get it are Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Not very distinguished company for you Mark. Maybe it’s time for  a good judgment call?  Get it??