Thread by @ASPertierra

A few words about holocaust denialism.

I'm a moderator on one of the non-toxic parts Reddit (r/AskHistorians). We've dealt with holocaust deniers for a while and find that the best policy is to shut that shit down.

Here's a short thread on what I've seen/dealt with.

https://twitter.com/caleweissman/status/1019616055126319105

First, I'll introduce everyone to a key concept: "JAQing off". This is a term used to describe holocaust denialists who are "Just Asking Questions" about different aspects of the holocaust.

They hold their more crazy theories at bay and frame it as good faith questions.

Thing is, folks who come to the subreddit to "just ask questions" about the holocaust seldom do this in good faith.

Often all it takes is browsing their user history (or lack thereof as many are sockpuppets for people we've previously banned) to find their real agenda.

Fun fact: unsurprisingly, some folks have been posters in the_donald! [🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔]

The entire purpose of holocaust denialists is to post bad faith (or outright conspiracy theory laden) propaganda in the hopes of undermining people's belief in the holocaust so that they can then use this as a trojan horse to radicalize them further.

You can find a longer defense of our position in the post I'm linking to below, but I want to make one point absolutely clear:

The method that works with holocaust denialism is shutting that shit down. These folks take advantage of anything short of that

reddit.com/r/AskHistorian…

On a related note, "100% free speech" platforms don't work online and just mean being flooded by bigots who make spaces so toxic that people just leave.

The only way AskHistorians has avoided becoming a total cesspool is our policy of *heavy* moderation.