Posters from a Holocaust denial group are being displayed at San Francisco BART stations.
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officials have defended their decision to allow ads for the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has branded a hate group.
The billboards, which are in at least two BART stations, feature a globe with the words ‘History Matters’ and the name of the agency.
BART says they forced IHR to remove their website address from the adverts, but had no choice but to allow the ads.
Posters from a Holocaust denial group are being displayed at San Francisco BART stations
‘We have no choice but to abide by the law as it pertains to First Amendment rights,’ the agency tweeted.
‘We don’t endorse these ads. Free speech court rulings against transit agencies that have denied ads have made it clear that we must post these ads and allow advertisers to express a point of view without regard to the viewpoint.’
Mark Weber, IHR’s director, told the Guardian, they paid $6,400 for the ads which will run throughout September.
Weber acknowledged the website has ‘published articles and items that reasonably could be called Holocaust denial, but it doesn’t necessarily represent my view or the views of the IHR,’ he told The Guardian.
The ads have already sparked a backlash online.
Attorney Mark S. Zaid tweeted: ‘IHR is a horrible group. I dealt with helping expose them in 1990s. No excuse from California transit agency in accepting the ads.’
Nick Giles also demanded to know if ‘there anything we can do about the IHR ads at Powell & Montgomery bart stations?’
‘Institute for Historical Review is classified by SPLC as a hate group that aims to ‘defend Nazism’ & spread Holocaust denial propaganda.’
‘Hate has no place on public transit,’ added Elizabeth Moore. ‘BART should reconsider their ad policies ASAP. Hate has no place on public transit.’
Hatewatch also tweeted their view of the IHR, saying it’s ‘a pseudo-academic organization that claims to seek ‘truth and accuracy in history,’ but whose real purpose is to promote Holocaust denial & defend Nazism.’
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officials have defended their decision to allow ads for the Institute for Historical Review
Mark Weber, IHR’s director, told the Guardian, they paid $6,400 for the ads which will run throughout September
The ads come at a time when neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic groups have become increasingly emboldened.
The IHR was founded in 1978 by Willis Carto, a far-right Holocaust denier, and have sponsored a number of Holocaust denial conferences and published an antisemitic journal, according to the SPLC.
They have run articles which include lines such as there is ‘no evidence for Nazi gas chambers’.
Other transit agencies have faced dilemmas over racist, misogynist or prejudiced ads.
New York City transit leaders ended up banning all political ads after a legal battle to reject proposals for Islamophobic ads.
Washington DC metro system also faced a lawsuit after it rejected an ad from alt-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos.