German newspaper is accused of anti-Semitic propaganda over cartoon depicting Mark Zuckerberg as big-nosed octopus

Cartoon in influential German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung

Published after announcement that Facebook had bought Whatsapp

Zuckerberg resembles caricature of Jewish people used in Nazi propaganda

Newspaper has apologised and released an updated version of the cartoon

Süddeutsche Zeitung accused of anti-Semitism for another image last year



The German newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, has been accused of anti-Semitism after it published a cartoon depicting Mark Zuckerberg as an octopus controlling the world.

The cartoon was published in the newspaper last Friday after the announcement that Facebook had purchased Whatsapp. Two versions were published, one with the caption ‘Krake Zuckerberg’, the other ‘Krake Facebook’ – Facebook Octopus and Zuckerberg Octopus.

In the drawing, the 29-year-old Facebook founder is portrayed with a hooked nose, fleshy lips and curly hair, features ascribed to Jewish people in Nazi cartoons.

Zuckerberg Octopus: The cartoon was published in Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper last week and has led to accusations of anti-Semitism

The cartoon was ‘starkly reminiscent’ of anti-Semitic Nazi era cartoons, Efraim Zuroff from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre told the Jerusalem Post.

‘[I]f anyone has any doubts about the anti-Semitic dimension of the cartoon, we can point to Mark Zuckerberg’s very prominent nose, which is not the case in real life,’ said Mr Zuroff who added that he found the cartoon, 'Absolutely disgusting!'



The cartoon depicts Mr Zuckerberg, who was raised Jewish but now describes himself as an atheist, as an octopus grasping at computers around him. In one of his tentacles he holds the logo of Whatsapp, the instant messaging service his company recently purchased for $19billion.

Jews were commonly depicted as octopuses, spiders, vampires and devils in Nazi-era propaganda, such as this poster from 1938

‘The nefarious Jew/octopus was a caricature deployed by Nazis. That was used pretty much as a staple by the Nazis in terms of their hateful campaign against the Jews in the 1930s. [An] exaggerated Jewish nose removes any question if this was unconscious anti-Semitism,’ Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre told Algemeiner.

‘Mark Zuckerberg is fair game for the media, including German media, but no German should deploy such caricatures,’ he said.

The cartoonist, Burkhard Mohr, apologised for the offence his cartoon caused in an email to the Jerusalem Post on Monday.

‘Anti-Semitism and racism are ideologies which are totally foreign to me,’ he wrote. ‘It is the last thing I would do, to defame people because of their nationality, religious view or origin.’

The newspaper took to Twitter on Monday to address the issue, writing simply: ‘We apologise for the cartoon.’

Mr Mohr released an updated version of the cartoon this week, replacing Zuckerberg’s face with a blank rectangular hole.

The Suddeutsche Zeitung came under fire for publishing a cartoon that seemed to depict the State of Israel as a ravenous monster.

The cartoonist Burkhard Mohr apologised for the offence he caused and released an updated version of the cartoon without Mark Zuckerberg's face The cartoon as it originally appeared in the newspaper last Friday. It bears the caption 'Krake Zuckerberg', or Zuckerberg Octopus Cartoonists have often used the image of an octopus to portray a global power taking over the world, such as this poster showing fear at the reach of the U.S. and this cartoon from 1994 depicting Microsoft's expansion The image dates back a long way, this cartoon depicting the colonial reach of England was published in America in 1888