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Tripadvisor removes ‘fun for the family’ review of Auschwitz Museum, a site of Nazi concentration camp
Tripadvisor’s reluctance to remove the review of Auschwitz Museum, the site of the former Nazi concentration camp, sparked a huge backlash on social media.
Travel website Tripadvisor removed an offensive review of the Auschwitz Museum in Poland and apologised for what it called the “initial miss” after facing backlash on Twitter. The Auschwitz Memorial, which preserves the site of the former Nazi concentration camp, tweeted on Thursday, saying the Massachusetts-based travel website denied the request to take down a review that described the experience as “fun for the family."
The Auschwitz Museum posted a screenshot of the response from Tripadvisor after they reported the review. “We have completed our investigation into your concern and have also evaluated all other aspects of the review in question. the review complies with our submission guidelines and will remain published on Tripadvisor,” the reply read.
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Over 1.1 million men, women and children were killed at the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp during World War II. The vast majority of Jews murdered during Adolf Hitler’s regime were brought to gas chambers. Tripadvisor’s reluctance to remove the review sparked a huge backlash on social media as users said it was not a good look for the review platform.
“That is awful @TripAdvisor have you properly read this and considered the implication and intent of that review?” wrote a user. “Well, either this was reviewed by a computer or a human being who works at @TripAdvisor needs to be fired,” read one of the comments.
After public outcry, Tripadvisor removed the review and released a statement, saying the company used "a blend of technology and people" to screen the reviews. However, It didn’t clarify whether a machine or a person was involved in the initial decision.
“In this case, our initial screening failed to identify this review as promoting intolerance. Through our escalation process, this review was removed. We always aim to get it right the first time and we apologize to the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum and the Jewish community at-large for this initial miss," the statement said.
