The Lessons of History
and Social Media
An important new study on Holocaust denial and social media was recently released by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) based in London. It happened to come on the heels of a major initiative by the Claims Conference to confront online denial through the first Holocaust survivor-driven digital campaign — #NoDenyingIt.
Photo: USHMM
Sara J. Bloomfield, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The ISD study’s summary states: “Holocaust denial has long been one of the most insidious conspiracy theories targeting Jewish communities, with its extremist proponents drawn from across the political spectrum, from extreme right-wing to hard left to Islamist. Research has shown that digital platforms have only served to amplify and mainstream this warped strain of thinking in recent years.” The study has three key findings: 1) “Holocaust denial content is readily available across Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter;” 2) “Holocaust denial content is actively recommended through Facebook’s algorithms;” and 3) “shifts in a platform’s terms of service are effective at limiting the spread of Holocaust denial content.” The report notes YouTube was able to reduce Holocaust denial content by modifying its terms of service.
Social media companies have a responsibility not only to free speech and to their shareholders. They have a responsibility to the future.
To carry out that responsibility, they — and all of us — need a better understanding of the past. It’s a warning that complacency is not an option.
Antisemitism has been around for two thousand years, is highly resilient, and is easily adaptable to changing circumstances. Holocaust denial is only one of the latest manifestations of antisemitism, and social media is only the most recent — but also perhaps the most consequential — vehicle for spreading it.
Antisemitism appeared in Europe long before the Middle Ages, but its consequences and lessons throughout history are timely. Rapid change or major events like pandemics led to searches for simple and convenient answers to complex questions, and Jews are thus made scapegoats time and again. Conspiracy theories about alleged Jewish power — Jews worldwide working together to bring the plague, control the economy, invent the Holocaust — were, and continue to be, excellent fodder for the constant needs of the modern world of mass communications.
From the invention of movable type in the 15th century to the mass communications of the late 19th and 20th centuries, information (and disinformation) have helped bring about massive societal changes — reforms and social and economic advancements as well as wars, revolutions, and mass atrocities. The past is a cautionary tale that technological progress is not always moral progress. The mix of human fears and hatreds with mass communications would become a potentially toxic brew with the birth of modern propaganda in connection with new technologies around World War I.
One veteran of that war and a keen observer of the role of propaganda was Adolf Hitler. In Mein Kampf, published in 1925, he demonstrated his interest in human nature: “The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding the psychologically correct way of gaining the broad masses’ attention and hearts.” His insights help explain why his first position in the Nazi Party was as its director of propaganda. Unlike other German politicians in the democratic Weimar Republic, Hitler was eager to use the latest technologies — sound amplification, airplanes, film, early versions of TV, and most crucially radio, perhaps the smartphone of its day — to advance his message.