May 12, 2009, 0:32 GMT
San Francisco - Responding to widespread indignation, social-networking site Facebook appeared Monday to have taken down several Holocaust denial sites, though several others were still viewable.
The move came after a Facebook spokesman had earlier declined to shut down the Holocaust denial groups with names like Holocaust: A Series of Lies, Holohoax, and Holocaust is a Myth. While these sites were still live on Monday, others were deleted, including: Based on the facts ... there was no Holocaust, and Holocaust is a Holohoax.
The sites were often linked to Neonazi message boards and anti- Semitic statements. But Facebook had declined to remove them.
'We abhor Nazi ideals and find Holocaust denial repulsive and ignorant,' a spokesman said over the weekend. 'Just being offensive or objectionable doesn't get it taken off Facebook. However, we believe people have a right to discuss these ideas, and we want Facebook to be a place where ideas, even controversial ideas, can be discussed.'
Dallas lawyer Brian Cuban went public with Facebook's policy late last week, prompting outraged responses from across the internet. Many people pointed out that earlier this year the site had in fact used its power to ban pictures of breastfeeding.
'Jew-haters welcome at Facebook as long as they aren't lactating,' the influential blog techCrunch noted in a headline.
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