The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia’s leading civil rights organisation fighting hatred in all forms, has called on Facebook founder and Chairman Mark Zuckerberg to personally intervene and immediately pull Nazi, Hitler and anti-Semitic GIF’s available to users of Facebook Messenger. An ADC investigation has found that users can choose from hundreds of Hitler and Nazi animated images and clips when sending messages to friends. Examples include Hitler with a Santa Clause hat dancing (part of an array of clips of Hitler dancing), Hitler with headphones listening to music, SS officers break dancing, a smiling Hitler with a young girl sitting on his knees (part of a series of GIF’s of Hitler tenderly embracing children) Hitler delivering a speech with the caption ‘Love me’, ‘A dog lover’ and ‘Art Lover’, An SS officer on a horse smiling, a burning swastika, Hitler walking up to a podium, a series of clips of Hitler giving the Heil Hitler or smiling, a man dressed up as Hitler on a swing, Hitler photo shopped to look like a cat, a tattooed arm with a coin flying up, Nazi marches and Donald Duck with eyes that flash a swastika, to name but a few.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“These hateful and repugnant GIF’s that have given Hitler and the Nazis the funny makeover are not a laughing matter. Facebook has crossed the line of decency by allowing its users to casually mock the memory of those who perished during the Holocaust and to callously re-victimise and trample on the feelings of survivors. To turn a homicidal monster into a cartoonish, playful character that is supposed to generate giggles as well as a powerful figure of admiration is beyond the pale. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg would like to explain to the survivors of Hitler’s Final Solution who have suffered unimaginable torture and who lost relatives in the death camps the reason that his company is giving people the go-ahead to treat the Nazis and the horrific crimes they committed as light entertainment? I say to Mr Zuckerberg: There is nothing funny or harmless about a bestial dictator responsible for the extermination of six million Jews and millions of others, and there is nothing amusing about Nazi soldiers who murdered babies, who shot entire families and who pushed women and children into the gas chambers. I’m sure that there are White-Supremacists who are rubbing their hands in glee knowing that the leader and evil ideology that they celebrate are being humourized, normalized and made acceptable. When you are the world’s largest social media platform, you have a responsibility to act morally and to realise that some things are simply out of bounds. As survivors are slowly dying, we all have a duty to remember the Holocaust appropriately and respectfully, not as material for a crass punchline and a gag. I call on Mark Zuckerberg to deal with this matter in a forthright manner and to show sensitivity and good judgement by having these GIFS removed immediately. Facebook should be a vehicle that fights racism and genocide, and should send a clear message to young people that the Nazis and the indescribable atrocities they perpetrated are not a game or a joke.”
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting racism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on 9272 5677.