Facebook removes Trump re-election campaign symbol used by Nazis

An inverted red triangle symbol was used by the Nazis to mark political prisoners.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

Citing a violation of its hate policy, Facebook removed on Thursday 88 of President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign ads that featured an inverted red triangle symbol used by the Nazis to mark political prisoners.

“We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate,” a statement by Facebook said. “Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group’s symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.”

In response, Trump re-election campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said the inverted red triangle is a symbol commonly used by Antifa, a general term used to describe a self-described “anti-fascist” group comprised of socialists, anarchists, and anti-capitalists.

Murtaugh also argued that Facebook itself has an inverted red triangle emoji on its platform.

“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,” Murtaugh said.

In an interview with NPR, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said that although its database is not a collection of historical Nazi imagery but rather a collection of symbols commonly used by modern extremist groups and white supremacists, it still shouldn’t have been used in Trump’s re-election ads.

“Intentionally or otherwise, using symbols that were once used by the Nazis is not a good look for someone running for the White House,” he said. “It isn’t difficult for one to criticize a political opponent without using Nazi-era imagery.”

Greenblatt also called on the president’s re-election campaign to apologize regardless of its intention.

Over the past month, Trump has been blaming Antifa for the violent protests that have been raging throughout the country over the murder of George Floyd.