The companies Twitter (Twitter) and Google (Google) said, in response to Radio Free Europe (RSE), that they intend to remove content denying the genocide in Srebrenica from their social platforms.
The Institute for Genocide Research Canada (IGK) recently requested the tech giants Twitter and YouTube to ban the denial of the Srebrenica genocide on their platforms.
Director of the Canadian Institute, Emir Ramić, told RFE/RL that the IGK keeps records of content on social networks and that most of the posts insulting the Srebrenica victims come from Serbia, but there are also some from Russia, France and other countries.
IGK has not yet received answers to the request it sent to those social networks on July 30, 2021, but Ramić says he hopes for a positive response "because both social networks have previously removed some content that incites hatred towards others and others and that offend victims of the Holocaust, and in individual cases also victims of the genocide in Srebrenica".
Twitter and Google: No place for hate speech
In connection with the request of the Genocide Research Institute, the Twitter and YouTube companies told RSE that they have a clearly established policy that "sanctions any hate speech."
In response, Google, under whose umbrella is the video platform YouTube, says that it will remove all content that violates the company's already established rules on the spread of hate speech.
"We have a clear and established hate speech policy that prohibits content that minimizes or denies well-documented, violent events, including the Srebrenica genocide. If it is determined that the content violates these guidelines, we will remove it," the YouTube spokesperson told RFE/RL.
They say the same thing on Twitter. According to the spokesperson of that social network, speech and messages of the network "have absolutely no place on Twitter".
“Our Hate Policy prohibits a wide range of conduct. This includes targeting individuals with offensive intentions, calling for violent events, the type of violence where protected categories of people have been victims or attempts to deny or minimize such events. Also, we have a strong policy in cases of glorification of the politics of violence, and we take measures against such content and behavior that try to glorify or praise violence and genocide," the RSE Twitter spokesperson said in a letter.
The company reminds that Twitter recently signed a document with the Canadian Center for Israeli and Jewish Affairs in which it committed to stop the spread of hatred against Jews through its platform. The same document was signed by other leading companies, including Google and Facebook.
Most of the content comes from Serbia
Emir Ramić says that his Institute for Genocide Research keeps records of content on social networks that deny the genocide in Srebrenica.
"Most denial of genocide comes from Serbia, then from (BiH) entity Republika Srpska, Russia, France," says Ramić and adds that there is systematic, organized denial of genocide in the United States of America (USA) and Canada.
"In Canada, we had a petition from the Canadian Parliament demanding criminal sanctions for the deniers of the genocide in Srebrenica in Canada. The petition was signed by thousands of Canadians, and the sponsor of the petition was a member of the Canadian Parliament, Brian Masse," explains Ramić for RFE/RL.
In the response of the Canadian Government to the petition launched by the Institute in 2019, it was stated that Canada strongly condemns the genocide in Srebrenica. At the same time, it is reminded that she did it through her institutions.
"In 2010, the Parliament unanimously adopted Resolution M416, which recognizes the events in Srebrenica as genocide. In the same year, the Lower House of the Parliament also unanimously adopted a proposal recognizing July 11 as the Day of Remembrance of Srebrenica. This act of recognition reflects the deep sorrow felt by Canadians across the country at the horrific events that took place and will ensure that those events are not forgotten," the Government of Canada's 2019 response to the Institute read.
As for the announcements from countries like Russia, France and, as Ramić says, to a lesser extent Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and England, they are mostly about individuals.
If you search for content on social networks using the keyword "Srebrenica", very often, in addition to the facts about the genocide in July 1995, when the forces of the Republika Srpska Army killed more than 8.000 Bosniaks, you will find plenty of content denying this crime, humiliating victims and convicted war criminals are glorified.
Posts on Facebook
In Serbia, in addition to individual posts, you can often find pages of groups that, in addition to promoting nationalist politics, publish content about the denial of the genocide in Srebrenica. There are also such groups on Facebook.
That company was already approached by the Canadian Institute in October 2020. Ramić says that the social network also reminded that it already has a policy of banning the praise of hate crimes, mass murders, mocking of victims and the promotion of criminals.
On that occasion, the Institute demanded that Facebook "treat the genocide in Srebrenica in the same way and prohibit its denial as it did with the Holocaust.
"They (Facebook, editor in chief) emphasized that they already have a policy of banning praise of hate crimes, mass murders, mocking of victims and promotion of organizations and individuals who commit them. On that basis, Facebook can remove from its platform any denial of the genocide in Srebrenica and glorification of convicted war criminals", explains Ramić and adds that this has already happened on several occasions.
"IGK considers it positive that Facebook treats the denial of the Holocaust and genocide as hate speech, and we hope that in the future it will even more remove the denial of the genocide in Srebrenica from its platform," adds Ramić.
That social network, like Twitter and YouTube, that is, Google, also has its own policy of dealing with posts that promote hate speech and on the basis of which inappropriate content is removed.
The Facebook company did not respond to Radio Free Europe's inquiry about how much content the social network has registered and removed so far.
The crime in Srebrenica is the only one that took place on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and which was characterized as genocide before international and domestic courts.
So far, 47 people have been sentenced to more than 700 years in prison for those crimes. Among those convicted are Radovan Karadžić, the first president of Bosnia and Herzegovina. entity Republika Srpska and commander-in-chief of the Army of the Republika Srpska Ratko Mladić.
How is it in practice?
For some time now, social networks have been facing the problem of content control in which crimes proven by all legal and historical facts are denied. Such examples are numerous when it comes to the Holocaust and the spread of anti-Semitism.
Despite business policies, such posts are not easy to control, the latest report of the British-American non-profit organization Center for Combating Hate in the Digital Space (CCDH) showed.
After monitoring for six weeks in May and June 2021, the CCDH concluded in its report that the tech giants failed to act on user reports of anti-Semitism.
Monitoring the five largest social networks - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, the CCDH says they did not respond to 84 percent of anti-Jewish posts that were reported through official complaint systems. Of the 714 posts that clearly violated the platform's policies on anti-Semitism and hate speech in general, just under a sixth were removed or had their profiles deleted after they were brought to their attention.
The solution is not only in the politics of social networks
Emir Ramić believes that the campaign against hatred and denial of the Holocaust and genocide should not only take place through social network platforms. He explains that the Governments of all countries, through their judiciary, should introduce laws that regulate this topic on social networks.
“Some countries, such as Germany, have already passed laws that tighten the rules on how social media platforms must deal with online hate speech and other illegal content. Some countries also prohibit genocide denial, online or offline," says Ramić.
Some countries also prohibit genocide denial, online or offline, Ramić reminds.
The decision to introduce a ban on denying genocide and war crimes was recently made by the now former High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Valentin Incko. This prohibition was introduced in the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On the other hand, the authorities in Serbia and the BiH entity Republika Srpska, despite international warnings, deny the genocide in Srebrenica.RADIO FREE EUROPE
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