Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, rebuked for comments on Holocaust deniers, tries to explain

Brett Molina | USA TODAY

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to walk back remarks he made on a podcast saying some people who deny the Holocaust aren't doing it intentionally.

During a wide-ranging interview on tech website Recode, Zuckerberg addressed the spread of misinformation on Facebook and how the social network plans on addressing concerns it's still giving outlets a platform to publish false news for its 2.2 billion users.

In one segment, Zuckerberg addresses how Facebook prefers to limit the distribution of misinformation, only removing content if it causes physical harm or personally attacks another user.

"I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened," said Zuckerberg. "I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong."

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The remarks drew backlash from critics who charged Zuckerberg with defending people who think the Holocaust didn't happen.

"Holocaust denial is a willful, deliberate and longstanding deception tactic by anti-Semites that is incontrovertibly hateful, hurtful, and threatening to Jews," said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, in a statement. "Facebook has a moral and ethical obligation not to allow its dissemination."

In a statement, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, called Zuckerberg's comments "wrong."

"The Nazi Holocaust is the most documented atrocity in history," said Cooper. "Allowing the canard of Holocaust denial to be posted on Facebook, or any other social media platform, cannot be justified in the name of 'free exchange of ideas' when the idea itself is based on a falsehood."

Amid the uproar, Zuckerberg released a statement to Recode clarifying his comments. "I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that," he said to Recode.

He did not say Facebook would change its position on pages, including Holocaust deniers, engaged in spreading false information, which is to make it harder for users to find the content in their news feed -- but not to remove them from the site.

Zuckerberg's remarks come at a time when Facebook continues to draw heat over how it plans to stop false information from proliferating on its service. Earlier this week, the social network was scolded over allowing Infowars, a site known for spreading conspiracy theories, to retain a presence on the network.

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During the Recode interview, Zuckerberg reiterated while posting fake news won't warrant removal, Facebook can still opt to limit how those posts or stories spread.

"What we will do is we’ll say, 'Okay, you have your page, and if you’re not trying to organize harm against someone, or attacking someone, then you can put up that content on your page, even if people might disagree with it or find it offensive,'" he said. "But that doesn’t mean that we have a responsibility to make it widely distributed in News Feed."

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.