posted June 18, 2020 03:44 PM            

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(Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) 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 with text asking Facebook users to sign a petition against antifa, a loosely organized anti-fascist movement.

In a tweet on Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said of the symbol: “The Nazis used red triangles to identify their political victims in concentration camps. Using it to attack political opponents is highly offensive.”

The Facebook ads were run on pages belonging to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, and also appeared in ads and organic posts on the “Team Trump” page.

“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 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.

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posted June 18, 2020 04:38 PM            

Hey Facebook, retribution is coming your way. You can't get a liability exemption based on your alleged 'Open Forum' platform and then shadow ban, remove advertising and close accounts of those whose political viewpoints you don't like.

The Attorney General is investigating your sorry a$$es and soon, recommendations will roll out for dealing with your lying application for liability indemnity.

Facebook is not an 'Open Forum Platform'. Facebook is another political propaganda arm of the democrat party.

posted June 18, 2020 04:58 PM            

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Originally posted by jwhop:
Facebook is not an 'Open Forum Platform'.

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No, it's a publisher that is censoring political speech...in order to defeat Trump in November.

posted June 18, 2020 05:15 PM            

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...antifa, a loosely organized anti-fascist movement.

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A very organized, left-wing anarchist movement that uses violence to achieve its political goals.

Project Veritas INFILTRATES ANTIFA: “Practice things like an eye gouge...injure someone's eyes"

posted June 18, 2020 05:27 PM            

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Originally posted by Dhyana:
A very organized, left-wing anarchist movement that uses violence...

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They’re not anarchist. They utilize violence as a form of power to force things to be their way, and are extremely authoritarian. They’re communist, the opposite of anarchist. Anarchists just want to be dropped in the middle of the woods, left to their own devices and not bothered or told what to do by anyone. Communists (and fascists) demand compliance from others, and often use threats and violence to accomplish it.

posted June 18, 2020 05:43 PM            

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Originally posted by shura:
How can we eliminate the ADL?

Let's brainstorm this.

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It’s basically unconstitutional to begin with. Just like all these gun regulations are unconstitutional.

posted June 18, 2020 06:06 PM            

Apparently, in addition to red upside triangles, the germans also used blue, green, black, etc triangles, each with a different meaning. 99% of people did not know these things and do not associate triangles with nazis.

posted June 18, 2020 06:31 PM            

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Originally posted by Blind writer:
They’re not anarchist. They utilize violence as a form of power to force things to be their way, and are extremely authoritarian. They’re communist, the opposite of anarchist. Anarchists just want to be dropped in the middle of the woods, left to their own devices and not bothered or told what to do by anyone. Communists (and fascists) demand compliance from others, and often use threats and violence to accomplish it.

That said, I understand the colloquial usage of the word.

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According to the definition you set out here no, Antifa is not anarchist.

According to Merriam-Webster, an anarchist is

"1: a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power

2: a person who believes in, advocates, or promotes anarchism or anarchy especially : one who uses violent means to overthrow the established order.

So, Antifa fits this definition and it's what I had in mind when using the word.

As for Antifa being communist, I don't know if this is true or not. But, I tend to be skeptical of this label because it's often and indiscriminately I think, ascribed by people on the right to Democrats and people on the left.

posted June 18, 2020 06:47 PM            

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Originally posted by Blind writer:
Let’s not forget that symbols change meaning over time. Iirc, isn’t the upside down pink triangle an LGBT icon?

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I am just finding out all those things about upside down triangles. Check out this wikipedia page: i see the upside down pink triangle under nazis symbols for homosexuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_cam p_badge#/media/File:Wikpedia_system_of_identification_German_camps.png

Do LGBTQ people know they are using a nazi symbol?

posted June 18, 2020 07:25 PM            

Several Donald Trump presidential campaign ads were axed by Facebook for violating its policy with a red triangle, which critics say is a Nazi reference. Conservatives insist it’s meant to symbolize Antifa, crying political bias.

The ads in question were posted to the Facebook pages for the president, Vice President Mike Pence, and Team Trump, and blasted “Antifa” and “far-left mobs” for “destroying” American cities.

However, it’s not the verbiage of the ads that has raised eyebrows, but rather an inverted red triangle seen right before social media users were asked to sign a petition celebrating Trump’s decision to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.

Anti-Trump users have pointed to the fact that an inverted red triangle was used by Nazi Germany during World War II to identify political prisoners, including communists, liberals, freemasons and harborers of Jewish people.

Also on rt.com ‘Independent’ Facebook fact-checker exposed as partisan smear factory packed with CNN alumni
“Nazis Put This Symbol on Political Opponents’ Arms. Now Trump is Using It,” Mother Jones headlined their coverage of the ads being pulled.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, blasted the imagery in the ads as “offensive and deeply troubling.”

Facebook confirmed the ads were removed because of the red triangle.

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

Trump campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh has pushed back against the accusations, saying the inverted triangle was only used because it’s one of the symbols of Antifa. The group most often uses red and black flags, as well as three red arrows pointing down. He added that the red triangle is not “included in the Anti-Defamation League’s database of symbols of hate.”

“The inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Antifa, so it was included in an ad about Antifa,” he said. “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.”

While admittedly not the most recognizable Antifa symbol, the red triangle can be found in connection to the movement on several websites, and in ‘Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook.’ The author Mark Bray acknowledges that Antifa was directly influenced by European antifascist groups that reclaimed the “red triangle” and utilized it....

posted June 18, 2020 07:32 PM            

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Originally posted by shura:
How can we eliminate the ADL?

Let's brainstorm this.

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Put a team of IRS tax lawyers onto examining their 501 tax exempt status. Document the fact they're a political organization engaged in political operations. Then revoke their tax exempt status and send them..and their donors a whopping tax bill and the ADL a huge fine.

posted June 18, 2020 08:09 PM            

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Originally posted by Dhyana:
According to Merriam-Webster, an anarchist is

"1: a person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power

2: a person who believes in, advocates, or promotes anarchism or anarchy especially : one who uses violent means to overthrow the established order

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When having discussions, it’s important to have a mutual agreement on the meaning of words, and I think a lot of friction in arguments is caused by that kind of misunderstanding. Buzz words are utilized by people of all political persuasions, unfortunately. A lack of consistency only exasperates problems, and to make things worse, there’s a deliberate push to change definitions.

The first definition you listed is exactly what I said: anti-authoritarian. The second is circular logic though. Webster recently did this with their new definition for “racism”, too. You can’t use the word “anarchy” in a definition for the word “anarchy”.

I accept the colloquial usage though. We’re basically in agreement, since I know what you meant.

posted June 21, 2020 02:18 AM            

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Originally posted by Blind writer:

As for communist Antifa, it’s clear in their edict. They want to destroy capitalism, and they’re trying to do it by force.

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I didn't know this. Thanks.

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Anyone ascribing this to the democrat party is being careless and painting with a broad brush.

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I notice this happens a lot. I don't know if you mean this in general or if you are referring to me, but I didn't link Antifa with the Democratic party.

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There is a difference between democrats, liberals, and leftists. Leftists are embracing authoritarian policies, and openly promoting and excusing the violence. They’re also promoting the censure and erasure of various symbols that defy their utopian ideology, and attempting to legislate morality and cancel dissenting voices. The left includes both communism and fascism. The leftists are also almost exclusively democrat. That doesn’t mean all democrats are leftists, though.

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I wouldn't describe myself or leftists I've known as subscribing to or advocating authoritarian principles. I wonder if the current expressions of the ideology are the shadow or unconscious side surfacing today.

posted June 21, 2020 03:47 AM            

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Originally posted by Dhyana:
I wouldn't describe myself or leftists I've known as subscribing to or advocating authoritarian principles. I wonder if the current expressions of the ideology are the shadow or unconscious side surfacing today.

Good you elaborated on this important topic.

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I meant in general, not you specifically - a lot of folks will broadly equate democrats and leftists, because there is a lot of correlation. As for Antifa, they’ll use whoever they can to further their agenda. Right now, it’s BLM. Because race is such an inflammatory issue, it’s easy to incite passion and shame others into some sense of obligation to concede and enable the mob. It makes them feel good, like they’re doing something positive, completely ignoring the ramifications of a communist revolution.

Leftists are authoritarian by definition. What matters is how far off center someone is. The furthest right is anarchy, and the furthest left is authoritarianism, which manifests as communism or fascism. The Democrat Party used to be left of center, very liberal. They’ve taken a hard turn to the left in the past decade, but it’s been going that way for a long time. The Republican Party has traditionally been broadly centrist, very conservative, but becoming more liberal in the past two decades. They’re drifting left too, because the folks abandoning the Democrat Party have little elsewhere to go.

We now have laws being passed in Oregon allowing folks to sue others for perceived racism (please define hate speech - it’s subjective and legally impossible). We had Obamacare mandating the purchase of a product under threat from the government. We have mandatory mask laws under threat of the government. We have restrictions placed on the practice of religion under threat from the government. We have videos getting deleted by YouTube (a self-identified open platform) without explanation. We have people put into Facebook jail (another self-identified open platform) for saying something allegedly offensive. We have Twitter (yet another self-proclaimed open platform) hiding tweets, deleting tweets, and appending tweets. We have regulations on top of regulations to purchase guns, and add exorbitant taxes and limits on purchasing ammo, and inconsistent laws across state lines (as opposed to driver’s licenses, that are universally recognized). These are all authoritarian measures, restricting our constitutional rights. A lot of these measures were meant “for the greater good”, but are still authoritarian in practice.

Some authority is necessary for societal order, but it becomes problematic when individuals lose their liberties and self-determination, especially those explicitly protected by the constitution. By all means, recommend masks as a useful deterrent for coronavirus, but don’t mandate it and arrest offenders. By all means, ask people to stay home, but don’t force businesses to close and revoke business licenses should they not comply.