Urban Dictionary attracts around 65 million visitors a month but has attracted increased concern over its promotion of ugly slang definitions – and has been accused by some of promoting hate speech.
On Monday, the Auschwitz Memorial accused Urban Dictionary of promoting “hurtful and disrespectful 'Auschwitz definitions' that mock & instrumentalise human death and suffering.”
They tweeted: "Hateful language should not be promoted and given platforms like that.”
The statement concluded: “The Urban Dictionary definition of antisemitism gets some things right: ‘The discrimination and degrading treatment towards the Jewish people.’
“Shameful, that antisemitism is accepted by the dictionary.”
Urban Dictionary, which was founded in 1999 by Aaron Peckham, an American computer science student, originated as a collection of slang or cultural words or phrases, not typically found in standard dictionaries.
A crowd-sourced venture it now contains more than eight million slang definitions.
The JC approached Urban Dictionary for comment.
