Johannes Breit highlights the strategies and experiences of the AskHistorians subreddit’s moderator team (of which he is a part) in combatting Holocaust denialism. He says that the idea of “Just Asking Questions (JAQ)” is a disguise for more explicit forms of denial by Holocaust deniers, and that allowing such skepticism to exist on social media in the name of free speech only empowers deniers’ campaign to mislead the public and spread hatred.
Discussing the ad campaign in her essential book Denying the Holocaust, Deborah Lipstadt highlighted the naïveté of those who believed that the “light of day” would dispel the lies of the deniers. “Light,” she wrote, “is barely an antidote when people are unable … to differentiate between arguments and blatant falsehoods.” Lipstadt ended by darkly observing that “correctly cast and properly camouflaged, Holocaust denial has a good chance of finding a foothold among coming generations.”
That prediction comes closer to reality with every post using denialist rhetoric on Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit. The intentions behind those posts don’t matter. To gauge whether a person is malicious or merely “ironic” is a futile exercise, for to give Holocaust deniers’ positions a platform is to disseminate their propaganda. To draw the line at overt calls for violence is equally insufficient. Holocaust denial serves Nazism, and Nazism is an ideology that at its very core advocates for violence. The only way to fight this morally and factually wrong viewpoint is to deny these positions a platform. This is the crucial lesson we have learned in running the AskHistorians forum. It is the lesson other platforms must emulate if they are sincere in fighting racism, anti-Semitism, and Nazism.
Source: The AskHistorians Subreddit Banned Holocaust Deniers, and Facebook Should Too | Slate