Facebook Removes Trump Advertisement
On Thursday, Facebook announced it took down President Donald Trump’s campaign ad for not complying with the platform’s policies on organized hate.
The controversial ads contained an upside-down triangle. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) explained that the symbol "is practically identical to that used by the Nazi regime to classify political prisoners in concentration camps."
The campaign ads called for the people to support President Trump’s demands to label the Antifa, a far-left group, as a terrorist organization. The President’s campaign is claiming that the triangle featured in the ad is "a symbol widely used by Antifa."
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The campaign has referred to websites selling unofficial Antifa merchandise with the upside-down triangle but has not produced any evidence of Antifa members using the symbol.
The ADL countered that the symbol is not common among members of the Antifa, although some members have worn it.
After removing the paid ads, Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone said, “We removed these posts and ads for violating 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.”
The social media platform confirmed that the hate group it commented on in the statement were the Nazis.
The platform’s removal of the Trump campaign ads follows widespread criticism of CEO Mark Zuckerberg for refusing to take action against one of the President’s posts saying that “looting” will lead to “shooting”.