Fri 19 June 2020:
Facebook said on Thursday that it took down posts and ads run by the re-election campaign of US President Donald Trump for violating its policy against organised hate as part of a broader culling of what the social media giant considers inflammatory racial rhetoric.
The ads showed a red inverted triangle with text asking Facebook users to sign a petition against Antifa, a loosely organised anti-fascist movement.
In a tweet on Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said: “The Nazis used red triangles to identify their political victims in concentration camps. Using it to attack political opponents is highly offensive.”
The Facebook ads were run on pages belonging to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, and also appeared in ads and organic posts on the “Team Trump” page.
The Nazis used red triangles to identify their political victims in concentration camps. Using it to attack political opponents is highly offensive. @POTUS‘ campaign needs to learn its history, as ignorance is no excuse for using Nazi-related symbols. https://t.co/7R7aGLD7kl
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) June 18, 2020
The company said in a statement the ads violated “our policy against organized hate”.
“Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group’s symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol,” said a Facebook company spokesperson.
Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, defended the posts.
“The inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Antifa, so it was included in an ad about Antifa,” said Murtaugh.
“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. The image is also not included in the Anti-Defamation League’s database of symbols of hate.”
Trump has threatened to designate Antifa a domestic “terror” organisation, though scholars are not sure it is possible for him to do so.
Antifa members have denied accusations of involvement in “terror”.
The Twitter page of Antifa International – a branch of the loosely organised movement – noted the group does not use that symbol and pointed out it was used in Trump-linked ads more than a year ago.
@realDonaldTrump isn’t being shy @ all about being a fascist anymore, is he? Just letting it all hang out there for everyone to see.https://t.co/qgwuufxtXJ
— Antifa International (@antifaintl) June 18, 2020
European anti-fascist groups initially used the red triangle as a symbol, hoping to reclaim its meaning after World War II, but it is no longer widely used by the movement nor by US Antifa groups, said Mark Bray, a Rutgers University historian and author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook.
Facebook removed another 900 social media accounts on Tuesday linked to white supremacy groups after members discussed plans to bring weapons to protests over the police killings of Black people.
The accounts on Facebook and Instagram were tied to the Proud Boys and the American Guard, two hate groups already banned on those platforms.
The Proud Boys were initially considered members of the Alt-right, a re-branding of white nationalist ideology that gained popularity around the time of Trump’s election in 2016. They supported Trump initially, along with other similar groups.
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