CoC update: no genocide denial
Published on June 2, 2026 by Nelson Chu Pavlosky
Today we are updating our Code of Conduct to ban genocide denial in general, not only Holocaust denial in particular.
There have been many genocides over the course of human history. We have blocked Threads in part because Facebook/Meta have been complicit in multiple genocides, such as in Myanmar and Tigray.
Recently, failed local Congressional candidate Dr. Ala Stanford falsely claimed that only the Holocaust counts as a genocide. In response, we commit to moderating denial of all of the other genocides in addition to Holocaust denial, and we commit to continuously educating ourselves about genocides past and present.
Note that the specific genocide Stanford sought to deny was the Gaza genocide, the extermination of Palestinians by the state of Israel, perhaps because she accepted money from AIPAC. This points to one of the dangers of letting any genocide denial slide: once you accept any genocide denial, it becomes easy to deny all the rest, to allow genocide to happen repeatedly across space and time, to cover for current genocides in progress, to suppress any discussion or attempts at accountability. When Stanford compared the word "genocide" to the N-word, trying to make it a slur, that was a threat to all people everywhere who might be someday targeted for mass murder.
We, the moderators of Jawns.club, are not particularly well-qualified to judge what is and isn't a genocide, and we certainly aren't paid well enough. Yet we cannot enforce our policy against disinformation without sometimes finding facts. Without taking positions on what is true, we cannot moderate dangerous falsehoods. We've seen enough, the Gaza genocide is genocide.
We apologize for taking this position so late in the Gaza genocide. We must also apologize for our relative inactivity and stalling on expanding our mod team. We had difficulty writing and agreeing on this text, and avoided thinking about this painful and stressful topic for some time, but we also didn't want to add to our mod team until we had a clear policy in place for moderating genocide denial. Now that we have a clear position, we are in a better place to ask for help maintaining & improving Jawns.club, and growing our community.
Thank you for your patience,
Nelson and Josh
There have been many genocides over the course of human history. We have blocked Threads in part because Facebook/Meta have been complicit in multiple genocides, such as in Myanmar and Tigray.
Recently, failed local Congressional candidate Dr. Ala Stanford falsely claimed that only the Holocaust counts as a genocide. In response, we commit to moderating denial of all of the other genocides in addition to Holocaust denial, and we commit to continuously educating ourselves about genocides past and present.
Note that the specific genocide Stanford sought to deny was the Gaza genocide, the extermination of Palestinians by the state of Israel, perhaps because she accepted money from AIPAC. This points to one of the dangers of letting any genocide denial slide: once you accept any genocide denial, it becomes easy to deny all the rest, to allow genocide to happen repeatedly across space and time, to cover for current genocides in progress, to suppress any discussion or attempts at accountability. When Stanford compared the word "genocide" to the N-word, trying to make it a slur, that was a threat to all people everywhere who might be someday targeted for mass murder.
We, the moderators of Jawns.club, are not particularly well-qualified to judge what is and isn't a genocide, and we certainly aren't paid well enough. Yet we cannot enforce our policy against disinformation without sometimes finding facts. Without taking positions on what is true, we cannot moderate dangerous falsehoods. We've seen enough, the Gaza genocide is genocide.
We apologize for taking this position so late in the Gaza genocide. We must also apologize for our relative inactivity and stalling on expanding our mod team. We had difficulty writing and agreeing on this text, and avoided thinking about this painful and stressful topic for some time, but we also didn't want to add to our mod team until we had a clear policy in place for moderating genocide denial. Now that we have a clear position, we are in a better place to ask for help maintaining & improving Jawns.club, and growing our community.
Thank you for your patience,
Nelson and Josh