Facebook has explicitly banned Holocaust denial for the first time saying its new policy prohibits “any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust”.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg wrote that he had “struggled with the tension” between free speech and banning such posts, but that “this is the right balance”.

Two years ago, Mr Zuckerberg said that such posts should not automatically be taken down for “getting it wrong”.

But on Monday, as Facebook changed its policies, he wrote that he had changed his mind.

“My own thinking has evolved as I’ve seen data showing an increase in anti-Semitic violence, as have our wider policies on hate speech,” he wrote in a public Facebook post.

Earlier this year, Facebook banned hate speech involving harmful stereotypes, including anti-Semitic content. But Holocaust denial had not been banned.

Facebook’s vice-president of content policy, Monika Bickert, said the company had made the decision alongside “the well-documented rise in anti-Semitism globally and the alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust, especially among young people”