Speech / S1
Holocaust denial
The person posts on a public social-media account, under their own name, that the Holocaust did not happen and the gas chambers are a fabrication. The post contains no threat, no call to violence, and names no living individual.
What we score
What can the state do to the author because of the post?
Default assumptions: Unless a vignette says otherwise, the person is a 30-year-old citizen of sound mind with no criminal record, acting alone, on their own behalf and not for profit, in an ordinary residential area. Where subnational units (states, provinces, cantons, Länder) make their own law, each unit is scored and the result is weighted by population. 'The state' includes police, prosecutors, courts, regulators, tax authorities and anyone acting on their orders, including platforms obeying takedown orders.
Score anchors
Both the law score and the practice score use these anchors. Half points are used when a country sits between two of them.
| Score | What it means for this vignette |
|---|---|
| 10 | Nothing. No law reaches the post; no takedown order can issue. |
| 8 | The state can order or pressure a platform to remove or geo-block the post, but the author faces no penalty. |
| 4 | Private parties (e.g. survivors' groups) can sue the author for damages under group-libel or civil hate-speech law. |
| 3 | An administrative fine or a regulator sanction against the author. |
| 2 | Criminal offence: fine, suspended sentence, or under 1 year in prison. |
| 1 | Criminal offence: 1 to 5 years in prison. |
| 0 | Over 5 years in prison. |
Evidence used: Denial, hate-speech and group-insult provisions of the criminal code; platform-regulation law (takedown powers); prosecution counts and reported cases for the last 5 years.
How each country scores
| Country | Law | Practice | Process | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10.0 | No US law reaches Holocaust denial: viewpoint-based restrictions on offensive speech are unconstitutional (Matal v. Tam, 2017), and speech can only be punished as incitement if directed to and likely to produce imminent lawless action (Brandenburg v. Ohio, 1969). No federal or state agency has power to order a platform to remove lawful speech; platforms may remove it under their own terms, which is not state action. |
| Mexico | 4 | 9 | 0 | 7.0 | Mexico has no Holocaust-denial offence. The federal anti-discrimination law (LFPED art. 9 XXVII) lists 'inciting hatred, rejection, mockery' as discrimination, and CONAPRED can impose administrative measures on private persons (courses, public notice of the resolution, public apology under arts. 83-83 Bis), but no fines. Mexico City's Penal Code art. 206 (1-3 years, on complaint) punishes provoking or inciting hatred; about 7% of the population lives there, and a denial post with no call to act is unlikely to meet it. No prosecutions or CONAPRED resolutions for Holocaust denial were found. |
| New Zealand | 2 | 8.5 | 0 | 5.9 | New Zealand has no Holocaust-denial offence. Human Rights Act 1993 s131 makes it a crime (max 3 months or a $7,000 fine) to publish 'threatening, abusive, or insulting' written matter with intent to excite hostility or contempt against a group on grounds of race or ethnic origin, and Jews are an ethnic group under King-Ansell v Police (1979); prosecution needs the Attorney-General's consent (s132). The Royal Commission on the Christchurch attack found only one prosecution has ever been brought under the provision (King-Ansell). A civil complaint under s61 is also possible, and a post could be taken down if the Classification Office found it objectionable, but no enforcement against Holocaust denial was found. |
| Ireland | 1.5 | 8 | 0 | 5.4 | Ireland has no Holocaust-denial offence. The only speech offence that could reach the post is s2 of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989 (publishing 'threatening, abusive or insulting' material intended or likely to stir up hatred against a group defined by religion, ethnic origin etc.), max 2 years on indictment; no court has applied it to bare denial, so dj sits between the 1 and 2 anchors. The Act is barely used: 16 cases finalised in the District Court from 2018 to September 2024, and the 2024 attempt to replace it with a broader online incitement offence was dropped. No enforcement data show any action against denial posts; at most the platform removes them. |
| Denmark | 1.5 | 7 | 0 | 4.8 | Denmark has no Holocaust-denial offence; the 2025 antisemitism package (Act no. 201 of 2025) added hate-zone sentencing and TCO takedown changes but did not criminalise denial. The only provision that could reach the post is § 266 b (statements that mock or degrade a group because of race or religion: fine or up to 2 years), and it would apply only if a court read 'the gas chambers are a fabrication' as degrading Jews. I found no reported conviction for denial alone, so the typical outcome is nothing or platform removal. Half point on dj because coverage is uncertain, not settled. |
| Singapore | 1 | 8 | −0.5 | 4.7 | Penal Code s298/298A were repealed on 15 Sep 2026 and replaced by s40 of the Maintenance of Racial Harmony Act 2025, which punishes conduct that knowingly incites enmity, contempt or ridicule against a racial group with up to 5 years; Jews are a racial and a religious group, so a denial post can be charged if prosecutors treat it as inciting contempt. The Minister can also issue restraining orders requiring content to be taken down. There is no reported Singapore prosecution for Holocaust denial; the realistic outcome is a police report, investigation and removal of the post. |
| United Kingdom | 1.5 | 6 | −0.5 | 3.7 | The UK has no Holocaust-denial offence, but Communications Act 2003 s127 (sending a 'grossly offensive' message, max 6 months) was used to convict Alison Chabloz in 2018 (20 weeks suspended) and again in 2021 (18 weeks' custody) over Holocaust-denying songs and podcast remarks. Malicious Communications Act 1988 s1 (max 2 years) and the Public Order Act 1986 Part III / Scotland's 2021 Act racial-hatred offences (max 7 years) could reach it if abusive and likely to stir up hatred, but have not been used for bare denial. Prosecutions for denial alone are rare; most such posts draw nothing or platform removal. Same position in E&W, Scotland and NI. |
| Netherlands | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2.0 | Since 1 October 2024, art. 137c(2)(b) Sr explicitly criminalises publicly denying or grossly trivialising genocide and crimes recognised by the Nuremberg Charter or Dutch/international courts, when it insults a group; maximum 1 year or a third-category fine (2 years if done habitually or by two or more people together). The first conviction under the new paragraph (January 2025, Enschede) was 60 hours of community service, half suspended. Group-insult cases are a small caseload (111 art. 137c offences registered by the OM in 2024). |
| Switzerland | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1.6 | Art. 261bis para. 4 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to publicly deny, grossly trivialise or justify genocide, punishable by up to 3 years in prison or a monetary penalty; it is prosecuted ex officio. The EKR recorded 50-78 decisions with a conviction each year under Art. 261bis in 2020-2025, about two-thirds of all decided cases. Most end in penal orders with fines or (often suspended) monetary penalties; prison has been imposed on repeat Holocaust deniers (e.g. Amaudruz). |
| Czechia | 1 | 2 | −0.5 | 1.1 | Criminal Code § 405 makes public denial or questioning of Nazi, communist or other genocide a crime punishable by 6 months to 3 years in prison. The Supreme Prosecutor's Office reported 20 suspended sentences, one fine and one waived penalty for § 405 between 2011 and 2018, and no unsuspended prison terms. Police open investigations into online posts, and since 2022 they have also used § 405 against posts approving Russian war crimes. |
| Germany | 1 | 2 | −1 | 0.6 | Publicly denying the Holocaust in a way capable of disturbing the public peace is a crime under § 130(3) StGB, punishable by up to 5 years or a fine. Typical outcomes are fines or suspended sentences for first offenders; repeat deniers have been jailed. Police run nationwide 'action days' against online hate posts with house searches (13th action day, 25 Feb 2026, about 140 investigations in all 16 Länder). |