The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia’s leading organisation fighting anti-Semitism and hatred in all its forms, has welcomed the decision by Google to tweak its algorithms so as to ensure that the Holocaust denial and white-Supremacist website Stormfront and its article “Top 10 reasons why the Holocaust didn’t happen” has been removed as the top result. Other Holocaust denial websites have also been relegated further down the list. The ADC earlier this month called on Google to change the ranking of the website, and other Holocaust denial sites that were dominating the top search results dealing with this question.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“Google Australia should be applauded for doing the right thing and for ensuring that when users search for “did the Holocaust happen?” they are taken to legitimate, credible, authoritative websites that will provide them with historically accurate information. No internet company should enable neo-Nazi and Holocaust-denying websites to be ranked high in any search. Holocaust denial tests our values and contravenes the moral code Australians have always cherished. Google should be a vehicle that champions social values and human rights and builds a civil society online, rather than be a facilitator for the proliferation of hate. We are pleased that instead of shrugging their shoulders and adopting a “just-ignore-them” strategy, Google has stopped giving access to deniers who trample on the memories of the Holocaust and who stain our children’s minds with putrid and pernicious falsification. It has demonstrated that digital giants can take the moral, honourable and ethical path, and not permit their search engines to become the disseminators of harmful and hate-filled content.”
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading civil rights organization fighting racism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677.