Antisemitic comments discovered on the Auschwitz Google Maps site
Google Maps was slammed by campaigners for these unmoderated comments.
By GADI ZAIGVISITORS WALK along the railway track at the main gate of the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp.(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Google Maps site for Auschwitz is under review after British newspaper The Guardian discovered there were more than 150 antisemitic reviews of the death camps, according to a report by Algemeiner. However, the majority of these comments remained online 24 hours after they were reported to Google by The Guardian.Google Maps was then slammed by campaigners as a result of these unmoderated comments.The comments discovered, many of which were anonymous, included phrases such as "Heil Hitler" and “Showers were a great experience, Anne Frankly I’m glad I came.” These comments had apparently been left on the site for months and even years.Some users even posed as historical figures such as Adolf Hitler and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi, best known for his book Survival in Auschwitz.The chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, Karen Pollock, told the news site that the comments were "sickening" and that "Google needs to take responsibility for the hate being shared on their site and take steps to monitor and remove such abhorrent content, and improve and change their moderation and policies."“We are appalled by these reviews on our platform and are taking action to remove the content and prevent further abuse,” a Google spokesperson said. “We have clear policies that prohibit offensive and fake reviews, and we work around the clock to monitor Maps. In this case, we know we need to do better and are working to evaluate and improve our detection systems."The Auschwitz Memorial Museum recently criticized the New Yorker magazine for an article on Polish Holocaust scholarship, claiming the publication has published distortions and outright falsifications of the Eastern European country's role during the Second World War.Aaron Reich contributed to this report.
