Twitter and Google are removing content denying Srebrenica genocide
The Institute for the Research of Genocide Canada (IGC) recently sent a request to the social networks Twitter and YouTube, and before that to Facebook, to ban the denial of the Srebrenica genocide on its platforms.
IGC keeps records of content on social networks and states that most posts insulting Srebrenica victims come from Serbia, but there are also from Russia, France, the USA, Canada, BiH and other countries.
Regarding the IGC’s request, YouTube responded that they have “a clear and established hate speech policy that prohibits content that minimizes or negates well-documented, violent events, including the Srebrenica genocide.”
“If content is found to violate these guidelines, we will remove it,” YouTube added.
Twitter responded that their “Hate policy prohibits a wide range of behavior”.
“This includes targeting individuals with offensive intentions, invoking violent events, the type of violence where protected categories of people have been victims or where attempts are made to deny or minimize such events. We also have a strong policy in cases of glorification of the policy of violence and we take measures against such content and behavior that try to glorify or praise violence and genocide,” they stated from Twitter.
Director of the Institute for the Research of Genocide in Canada, Emir Ramić, stated that, like the victims of genocide, neither the researchers have the right to remain silent and forget.
“The fight for truth and justice is the basis of our survival and existence, and it is worth fighting for. The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers. The genocide in BiH did not start with mass killings. They started with national and racial discrimination and hate speech. The best tribute to the victims of genocide is an organized and knowledgeable struggle for prevention through equality in our words and deeds. Our motive for the fight for truth and justice is not hatred against the other and different, but freeing the victim from fear through a culture of remembrance, in the name of a better future. Researchers must have professional responsibility and sufficient moral courage in researching and communicating the scientific truth about genocide, but also in the fight against genocide denial, falsification of judicial, scientific and historical facts about genocide and glorification of convicted war criminals,” said Ramić.