Massachusetts School Blocks Holocaust Denier from Internet

The University of Massachusetts has taken steps to deny a prominent Holocaust denier access to its World Wide Web site, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Ernst Zundel, 57, a German-born resident of Toronto, succeeded in circumventing a German government effort to block access to Internet sites promoting racial hatred.

Zundel countered the German government action this month by enlisting the help of Internet activists at 10 prestigious American universities. The activists said they cooperated mainly because they oppose any effort to regulate and censor the Internet.

The Wiesenthal Center last week commended the University of Massachusetts for ordering the graduate student who posted the messages for Zundel on the university’s Web site to remove them.

“The bottom line is that while bigots may have the right to put their ideas in cyberspace, institutions of higher learning supported by taxpayers and public grants have no obligation to provide them with access and legitimacy,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the center.

“The university was right to conclude that such activity constitutes inappropriate use of public resources,” he said.

Germany, where Holocaust denial is a punishable crime, had sought to block access to Internet sites posting messages that promote racial hatred. The move was aimed at preventing Zundel from propagating his message that the Holocaust is a hoax.

“It is our hope that other schools will follow the example set by the University of Massachusetts,” Cooper said.

The other nine schools include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of Texas and the University of Pennsylvania.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s National Task Force Against Hate is now canvassing more than 2,000 American colleges and universities to find out their rules for the use of their on-line services.