Facebook on Thursday removed content and political ads run by President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign that featured a symbol that the Nazis used in the World War II era to identify certain prisoners in concentration camps.
The red inverted triangle included in the material by "Team Trump" once marked political dissidents like Communists and Social Democrats, and a variation was used to label Jewish political prisoners. The posts and ads were removed for violating Facebook’s policy against organized hate, a company spokesperson confirmed Thursday afternoon, which "prohibits using a banned hate group's symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol," he said.
The symbol appeared in Trump campaign ads condemning "dangerous MOBS of far-left groups" that it said are "DESTROYING our cities and rioting," according to The Washington Post, which first reported on the use of the symbol.
The Trump campaigne maintains that the inverted triangle is a symbol of antifa, the left-wing anti-fascist movement that the president has frequently attacked during the racial justice protests spreading across the country in recent weeks.
"The inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Antifa, so it was included in an ad about Antifa," said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh in a statement. "We would note that Facebook still has an inverted red triangle emoji in use, which looks exactly the same, so it’s curious that they would target only this ad."
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) pressed Facebook’s head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, on the issue during a virtual House Intelligence Committee hearing on election security Thursday. Swalwell asked him, “What sanctions will you take against the Trump campaign, because this is not the first time an ad has been taken down?” and questioned how many times a campaign would have to post a symbol that violates Facebook's policies before the company would take down a page or remove an account altogether.
“Congressman, my focus isn't on our ads policies,” said Gleicher, adding that he did not have details on what that threshold might be but could follow up. “What I can tell you is, if we see repeated instances of violations — repeated instances of misinformation, for example — we will take increasing actions.”
The takedown comes after weeks of backlash from Facebook employees, lawmakers and the American public over Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to not take action on the president’s remarks about shooting looters during the protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
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June 19, 2020 at 03:51AM
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Facebook removes Trump campaign material that featured Nazi-era symbol - POLITICO
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