Facebook deletes Farrakhan ‘Termite’ post; Twitter has not

Last week, Facebook removed a Louis Farrakhan post in which he compared Jews to termites. Twitter has not.  

By David Isaac, World Israel News

Facebook removed a video of Louis Farrakhan compared Jews to termites, a violation of the social-media giant’s hate speech rules, website The Wrap reported.

But Twitter still hasn’t removed the offending post.

The video, in which the Nation of Islam leader denied he was anti-Semite, but instead “anti-Termite,” was taken down by Facebook sometime after Wednesday afternoon last week.

A Facebook representative told The Wrap that the video was deleted because Farrakhan “refers to Jews as termites, which amounts to Tier 1 hate speech,” violating company policies.

According to Facebook’s community standards, a Tier 1 violation includes, “Dehumanizing speech such as reference or comparison to: Insects [and] animals that are culturally perceived as intellectually or physically inferior.”

In the two-minute video, Farrakhan says: “So when they talk about Farrakhan, call me a hater, call me anti-Semite. Stop it. I’m anti-Termite. I don’t know nothing about hating somebody because of their religious preference.”

Will Twitter act?

On Wednesday, at the time Facebook deleted the hateful post, Twitter announced it would not do so.

A Twitter representative explained that a new policy against “dehumanizing” language, such as comparing “groups to animals and viruses” had not yet gone into effect.

Twitter is aware of Farrakhan’s racist tweets. In June, it removed the Nation of Islam leader’s blue-check verification not long after Farrakhan tweeted against “the Satanic Jew.”

A blue-check on Twitter tells people an account of public interest is authentic. Although the blue badge doesn’t imply an endorsement by Twitter it can be confused as such.

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