#NeverForget vs. #NeverHappened: Holocaust Commemoration and Contestation on Social Media

This project analyses the contemporary commemoration and contestation of the Holocaust and its victims on social media during its anniversaries.

It asks: 1) How, around what topics and content, and to what effect do institutional and grassroots actors interact on social media when commemorating the Holocaust during its anniversaries? 2) How are these efforts to commemorate the Holocaust on social media contested by antisemitic actors at these times, what is the impact of such contestation and how can it be countered? 3) What role do the technical design and algorithms of social media platforms play in these dynamics of commemoration and contestation?

The project involves an international and interdisciplinary team with expertise in digital sociology, and memory, media and communication studies.

Focusing on Swedish, English, and German linguistic settings, relevant data will be compiled via the collection of social media content, semi-structured interviews, and digital ethnography.

Large scale text- and image-analysis, social network analysis and discourse analysis, among other techniques, will be applied to this data.

The project will generate new knowledge, of relevance to a range of societal stakeholders, at a time when memory of the Holocaust is not only being eroded by the continued passing of its living survivors but also faces the heightened risks associated with a contemporary political landscape characterised by increasingly visible polarisation, especially online.