Facebook Inc. says it has taken down posts and ads run by US President Donald Trumps re-election campaign because they contained a symbol used in Nazi Germany for political prisoners.
The social media giant, which has drawn criticism over its hands-off approach to political speech in recent months, said Thursday such posts violated the companys policy against organized hate.
"We dont allow symbols that represent hateful organizations or hateful ideologies unless they are put up with context or condemnation," Facebook head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher said at a House of Representatives committee hearing.
"Thats what we saw in this case with this ad, and anywhere that that symbol is used we would take the same actions."
The ads showed a red inverted triangle with text that asked Facebook users to sign a petition against antifa, a loosely organized anti-fascist movement.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation Leagues CEO, said on Twitter that red triangles were used by the Nazis "to identify their political victims in concentration camps. Using it to attack political opponents is highly offensive."
The ads were run on pages belonging to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, and were also used in ads and organic posts on the "Team Trump" page.
Meanwhile, Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said in an email, "The inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Antifa, so it was included in an ad about Antifa."
"We would note that Facebook still has an inverted red triangle emoji in use, which looks exactly the same, so its curious that they would target only this ad. The image is also not included in the Anti-Defamation Leagues database of symbols of hate."
This is not the first time Facebook has removed an ad by the Trump campaign. Early in March, the company said it had removed some ads by the presidents campaign promoting "the Official 2020 Congressional District Census."
The ads, which asked users to fill out an "Official 2020 Congressional District Census," came from the pages of Trump and Pence, linking to a survey on an official campaign website and then to a page that asks for donations.
Facebook has come under attack by Democrats too who criticized the company for its policy of not fact-checking ads run by politicians, a policy they also say benefits Trump.
SOURCE: PRESS TV
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/18695
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