Facebook pulls Trump campaign ads, saying they violated organized hate policy

Ads from President Trump's campaign have been yanked from Facebook after the company says they violated its policy against "organized hate."

The Trump campaign this week ran advertisements on Facebook that asked supporters to back Trump's "decision to declare antifa a terrorist organization" and showed an upside-down red triangle; the Anti-Defamation League said this symbol is "practically identical to that used by the Nazi regime to classify political prisoners in concentration camps," CNN reports. Now, the ads have been removed.

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

The President of the United States is campaigning for reelection using a Nazi concentration camp symbol.

Nazis used the red triangle to mark political prisoners and people who rescued Jews.

Trump & the RNC are using it to smear millions of protestors.

Their masks are off. pic.twitter.com/UzmzDaRBup

— Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (@jewishaction) June 18, 2020

The Trump campaign claimed the symbol is "widely used by antifa," and the campaign's director of communications told CNN "it's curious" Facebook pulled the ad when it "has an inverted red triangle emoji in use."

This is an emoji.

It's also a symbol widely used by Antifa. It was used in an ad about Antifa.

It is not in the ADL's Hate Symbols Database. pic.twitter.com/V4fK8QWHKD

— Trump War Room - Text TRUMP to 88022 & get the APP (@TrumpWarRoom) June 18, 2020

Historian Jacob S. Eder told The Washington Post the use of the symbol was "highly problematic," saying that "it's hard to imagine it's done on purpose, because I'm not sure if the vast majority of Americans know or understand the sign, but it's very, very careless, to say the least." Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt also said that "ignorance is not an excuse for appropriating hateful symbols."