Facebook takes down Trump ads over 'organized hate' policy

By Elizabeth Culliford

 

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion on the reopening of small businesses in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 18, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis

 

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Thursday it took down posts and ads run by the re-election campaign of U.S. President Donald Trump for violating its policy against organized hate.

 

The ads showed a red inverted triangle, a symbol the Nazis used to identify political prisoners, with text asking Facebook users to sign a petition against antifa, a loosely organized anti-fascist movement.

 

Trump and Attorney General William Barr have repeatedly singled out antifa as a major instigator of recent unrest during nationwide anti-racism protests, with little evidence.

 

Facebook said on Thursday it took down posts and ads run by the re-election campaign of U.S. President Donald Trump for violating its policy against organized hate. Gavino Garay has more.

 

"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.

 

The symbol was in Facebook ads run on pages belonging to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, as well as on ads and organic posts on the "Team Trump" page.

 

"Whether aware of the history or meaning, for the Trump campaign to use a symbol – one which is practically identical to that used by the Nazi regime to classify political prisoners in concentration camps – to attack his opponents is offensive and deeply troubling," the Anti-Defamation League's CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said in a statement.

 

A screenshot from Facebook’s ad library shows an ad run by Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign, one of many using the same symbol that Facebook took down on Thursday for violating its policy against organized hate. Facebook via REUTERS

 

"The inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Antifa, so it was included in an ad about Antifa," Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said in an email.

 

"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."

 

A spokesman for the ADL said its database was not one of historical Nazi symbols but of those "commonly used by modern extremists and white supremacists in the United States."

 

He also said that there have been some antifa who have used the red triangle, but that it was not a particularly common symbol used by the group.

 

Mark Bray, a historian at Rutgers University and the author of "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook," said that the red triangle had been reclaimed by some leftist groups in the United Kingdom and Germany after World War Two but that he had never come across any use of it by anti-fascists in the United States.

 

A Reuters tally counted 88 versions of the ad using the symbol from the three Facebook pages. Ads from Trump's page had gained at least 800,000 impressions, according to Facebook's ad library.

 

Asked about the ads' removal at a U.S. House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, Facebook's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said the company would be consistent in taking the same actions if the symbol appeared in other places on the platform.

 

Facebook has previously removed Trump campaign ads, including ones that violated the company's policy against misinformation on the government's census.

 

(Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford in Birmingham, England; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Dan Grebler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-06-19

 

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Uh ho Donalds not going to be happy first comes the nasty tweets then comes the wineing victim act 

 

Interesting to use a Nazi symbol to call out Antifa.

 

Next up... honest it was a gold star, not a yellow one.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Tug said:

Uh ho Donalds not going to be happy first comes the nasty tweets then comes the wineing victim act 

 

And he would be right. If you read the article you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle, yet the President of the United States is not. Double standards on steroids. No logic at all in this decision, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that facebook is interfering with the 2020 election. Platform vs publisher? Not much doubt about that now is there.

1 minute ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And he would be right. If you read the article you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle, yet the President of the United States is not. Double standards on steroids. No logic at all in this decision, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that facebook is interfering with the 2020 election. Platform vs publisher? Not much doubt about that now is there.

Nope trump should be smarter than that it imo was a dumb move but go ahead try to paint him the victim he’s not btw America is

4 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle

 

I guess I can understand why Anti-Fascists would use Nazi symbolism to highlight the imhumanity of, well Nazis.

 

Turning it around to include Antifa as politcal prisoners seems almost cartoonsihly evil.

 

Sheesh. June 6, 1944, the largest Antifa action EVER.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badge

 

Red triangle – political prisoners: social democrats, socialists, communists and anarchists; rescuers of Jews; trade unionists; and Freemasons.

 

 

 

 

7 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And he would be right. If you read the article you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle, yet the President of the United States is not. Double standards on steroids. No logic at all in this decision, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that facebook is interfering with the 2020 election. Platform vs publisher? Not much doubt about that now is there.

 

23 minutes ago, webfact said:

He also said that there have been some antifa who have used the red triangle, but that it was not a particularly common symbol used by the group.

 

25 minutes ago, webfact said:

"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.

So, it is standard Facebook policy rather than interference with the election, a point you seem to be deliberately glossing over to try to make a pitiful political point. Again!

I add that when you use highly questionable symbols or rhetoric, you should expect to be called out for it, when it crosses the line of common decency.

Toys coming out of the pram big time. ????

Why can ANTIFA use it?  surely all they are doing is pointing that out?  it should not be used by ANYBODY obviously.  Very thin line this SM censorship issue.

All this noise about Antifas. A good hate mantra for the morally void disciples to chant. It all so 30s nazi.

 

What ever happened to the Covfefes?

 

 

Why did the Trump re-election campaign use this symbol? 

 

Seriously, you don't put a big red triangle in a campaign ad for no reason.  What was the reason?

The whole discussion about censoring would not exist if Trump and others would make truthful honest statements.

But Trump being Trump that will never happen. He needs to lie to convince some people to vote for him. Disgusting president, disgusting supporters. America, the land of the free...

38 minutes ago, BobBKK said:

Why can ANTIFA use it?  surely all they are doing is pointing that out?  it should not be used by ANYBODY obviously.  Very thin line this SM censorship issue.

I agree that censorship is difficult.

But the president and his reelection team should never use such a symbol, even if others use it.

The president should be better than that. Should be...

Looks like he's also gone and tweaked Twitter's sensitivities again.

 

Twitter labels Trump video tweet as manipulated media, continuing its crackdown on misinformation

"Twitter on Thursday evening took the rare step of appending a warning label to one of President Trump’s tweets after the company determined it violated its policies on manipulated media.

 

The president tweeted a doctored version of a popular video that went viral in 2019, which showed a black and a white toddler hugging. In the version Trump shared, the video has been edited with ominous music and a fake CNN headline that says, “Terrified toddler runs from racist baby.”

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/18/trump-tweet-label-video/

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by metisdead
Oversize font reset to normal.

 

1 hour ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And he would be right. If you read the article you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle, yet the President of the United States is not. Double standards on steroids. No logic at all in this decision, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that facebook is interfering with the 2020 election. Platform vs publisher? Not much doubt about that now is there.

"Asked about the ads' removal at a U.S. House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday, Facebook's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, said the company would be consistent in taking the same actions if the symbol appeared in other places on the platform."

Can you cite any instances where anybody else has used the symbol on Facebook and it's been allowed to stay up?

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by johnpetersen

Easy to see why the vile fascist 45 would champion a Nazi symbol. 45 told Xi that putting Uyghurs in Concentration Camps was a good move.

 

One can easily imagine how 45 would have been right there with Heinrich Himmler putting other 'undesirables' into Concentration Camps in the 1940s.

 

A psychopath by any other name......

 

History does rhyme:

 

Fake News= Lügenpresse

 

"Enemy of the People"....used by both Stalin and Hitler

3 hours ago, NanLaew said:

Looks like he's also gone and tweaked Twitter's sensitivities again.

 

Twitter labels Trump video tweet as manipulated media, continuing its crackdown on misinformation

"Twitter on Thursday evening took the rare step of appending a warning label to one of President Trump’s tweets after the company determined it violated its policies on manipulated media.

 

The president tweeted a doctored version of a popular video that went viral in 2019, which showed a black and a white toddler hugging. In the version Trump shared, the video has been edited with ominous music and a fake CNN headline that says, “Terrified toddler runs from racist baby.”

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/06/18/trump-tweet-label-video/

Again I must ask why:  Why would Trump tweet such a BS doctored video? 

3 minutes ago, heybruce said:

Again I must ask why:  Why would Trump tweet such a BS doctored video? 

Because he is a dumb fool.........that is why!

3 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And he would be right. If you read the article you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle, yet the President of the United States is not. Double standards on steroids. No logic at all in this decision, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that facebook is interfering with the 2020 election. Platform vs publisher? Not much doubt about that now is there.

I suppose Trump soliciting re-election assistance from the country that gave America a coronavirus pandemic is not a double standard.

3 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And he would be right. If you read the article you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle, yet the President of the United States is not. Double standards on steroids. No logic at all in this decision, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that facebook is interfering with the 2020 election. Platform vs publisher? Not much doubt about that now is there.

Where in the article does it say anti fascist groups are allowed to use the symbol on facebook?

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by Bluespunk

3 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And he would be right. If you read the article you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle, yet the President of the United States is not. Double standards on steroids. No logic at all in this decision, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that facebook is interfering with the 2020 election. Platform vs publisher? Not much doubt about that now is there.

Excuse. Excuse. Excuse.

Deflection. Deflection. Deflection.

Faux outrage. Faux outrage. Faux outrage.

Conspiracy. Conspiracy. Conspiracy.

 

Standard Trump fan stuff. Nothing to see here. Move along please.

3 hours ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And he would be right. If you read the article you would understand that antifa are allowed to use the inverted red triangle, yet the President of the United States is not. Double standards on steroids. No logic at all in this decision, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that facebook is interfering with the 2020 election. Platform vs publisher? Not much doubt about that now is there.

Well, aren't we lucky that neither the very small group called Antifa nor 45 don't have things like access to the nuclear codes that can launch upwards of 7800 weapons with a combined megaton capacity to wipe out all life on the planet.

 

Oh, wait!

 

 

59 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

Excuse. Excuse. Excuse.

Deflection. Deflection. Deflection.

Faux outrage. Faux outrage. Faux outrage.

Conspiracy. Conspiracy. Conspiracy.

 

Standard Trump fan stuff. Nothing to see here. Move along please.

I could not agree with this more...it is always "What About...what about...what about" and not focusing on what just happened...POTUS and VPOTUS just used a known Nazi symbol of hatred death and oppression to serve up some divisive red meat to MAGA. We should expect better from our leaders and if they can't provide even the most modest of common sense and decency they should be changed for those that can at least try. 

 

Also I wouldnt put it past him and his campaign crew to pull this stunt just so he can put Facebook on the fence with the threat that if he is not allowed to run wild on that platform the way he was with twitter before they stood up to him that he will try and legally and financially burn them to the ground. As far as I am concerned facebook and twitter would be better off without the 80 million followers and whatever protection being a platform vs publisher provides them. Both platforms certainly will keep making money, the **WORLD** will not quit using either for social media. The IQ of both databases would rise substantially by thinning the cyber herd of that element.

Edited June 19, 20206 yr by Tie Dye Samurai

1 hour ago, heybruce said:

Again I must ask why:  Why would Trump tweet such a BS doctored video? 

Because he understands that his lies are believed by his base and that his base will not accept any argument that he has lied.

 

For his base, his lies become something to defend against ‘the enemy’, no amount of evidence or arguments will change their belief in what Trump tells them.

 

We have surely seen enough examples to understand that.

All with the compliments of his whisperer Miller.

2 hours ago, heybruce said:

Again I must ask why:  Why would Trump tweet such a BS doctored video? 

Because the Right have a sense of humor. The Left do not appear to understand memes. Snopes is always trying to fact-check them. How dense would one need to be.

5 hours ago, webfact said:

using the same symbol that Facebook took down on Thursday for violating its policy against organized hate.

Trump just got FB to admit that ANTIFA is an organised hate group. ????

58 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

Because the Right have a sense of humor. The Left do not appear to understand memes. Snopes is always trying to fact-check them. How dense would one need to be.

So Trump is trying to lighten the mood with a fun meme? OK then, now I get it. Trump is again showing us what a statesman he's become by trying to create merriment in this time of national crisis.

Riiiiiiight..........

Another nail in the I am not going to get re-elected Trump coffin. Time to change this guy out. Only good thing he has done is pushed against China.