Regularly accused of being lax vis-à-vis Donald Trump, who is spreading on social networks, messages in electoral and attacks from the front, controversial, Facebook has had the opportunity to intervene Thursday against the messages of the us president who wore a nazi symbol almost unanimously condemned. The giant of social networking has removed the advertisements published by the electoral campaign of Donald Trump.
They attacked the extreme left, and had a red triangle reversed, the symbol used by the nazis to designate political prisoners in the concentration camps.
“We have removed these posts and pubs because they violate our rules on hate organized”, said a spokesman for the giant of social networks on Thursday.
We do not allow the symbols represent organisations that are hateful
The alert was first given by the Washington Postwho has reported these content issues to Facebook. The platform was then unpublished, the ads that had the red triangle.
“We do not allow the symbols represent organisations that are hateful or ideologies hateful unless it is to condemn”, justified Nathaniel Gleicher, director, regulations on cyber security at Facebook, when asked during a hearing at the u.s. Congress on Thursday on the Washington Post article.
A symbol worn by the political prisoners of the left
The red triangle appeared on some of the messages of the campaign sponsored by the u.s. president, the vice-chairman Mike Pence, and the page of the campaign team, “Team Trump” (“team Trump”).
The text attacked the “dangerous hordes of groups of extreme-left” and called on users to sign a petition against the “Antifa”, or anti-fascists, as the head of State was accused, without evidence, to cause degradation in the protests against the police violence.
The nazis were wearing this symbol of political prisoners of the left.
“Using this symbol to attack political opponents is very aggressive”, commented on Twitter Jonathan Greenblatt, the director of ADL (Anti-Defamation League, a jewish association). The campaign team of the president “should learn the history, ignorance is not an excuse,” he continued.
Facebook had already unpublished the publicity of Trump
“It is a symbol used by the Antifa”, responded an account called “Trump War Room”. An assertion refuted by associations of the civil society, like Media Matters.
This is not the first time that the global platform removes ads posted by the president’s team.
In march, Facebook had unpublished, an advertisement of Donald Trump looked like an official message in favour of the census, but who re-directed the users to its campaign site.
Dilemmas and controversies
The debate on the moderation of ads and political platforms through the United States for months, at least 140 days of the presidential election.
Facebook allows pubs to be political in nature and refuses to submit to the words of the candidates and elected representatives in its programme of verification of the facts, in the interest of the public to make up their own mind.
But their messages remain subject to the general rules against terrorism, the glorification of violence or false practical information on the elections.
This approach does not preclude the dilemmas and controversies.
Unlike Twitter, Facebook has refused to take action on messages polemics of the president at the end of may, a vote by correspondence (which he likened to the electoral fraud) and another on the protests and riots that followed the death of George Floyd, an African-American, was asphyxiated by a white policeman in Minneapolis.
The latter was considered by Twitter, many observers and even employees of Facebook as a matter of incitement to violence.
Facebook promises to re-evaluate its position on political ads
The refusal to give boss Mark Zuckerberg has sparked a new outcry against the network.
Wednesday, of associations for the defence of the american negroes and the civil society (including ADL) have launched a call for a boycott of Facebook by advertisers during the month of July, in order to obtain a better regulation of the groups that incite hatred, racism or violence.
Facebook had promised to re-evaluate its position on political ads. Only concession for the moment, it is also controversial : the network now gives the opportunity to its users who want all the disable.
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