The social media company has attracted criticism for taking a laissez-faire attitude to political advertising compared with Google (which owns YouTube) and Twitter.

While Twitter has banned virtually all political advertising and Google has announced some restrictions such as a ban on microtargeting, Facebook has repeatedly refused to introduce significant restrictions on what content may be posted. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally defended the right to lying in political adverts as a matter of freedom of expression.

After permitting a number of controversial Trump adverts to run on its main platform, Facebook has taken action by removing a Trump ad which violates Facebook’s community standards.

The campaign ads for Trump and running mate Mike Pence featured an image of an inverted red triangle identical to the symbol used in Nazi concentration camps to identify political prisoners. The campaign advert attacking Antifa, a group of loosely-connected and autonomous groups of anti-fascist and anti-racist activists, began running on Wednesday of this week. They were online for approximately 24 hours before being removed.

Trump has expressed interest in designating Antifa as a terrorist organisation after making largely unsubstantiated claims that Antifa activists were responsible for violent clashes amid anti-racism protests. It is not clear how Trump would designate Antifa a terrorist organisation.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign, Tim Murtaugh, defended the posts, stating: “The inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Antifa, so it was included in an ad about Antifa. We would note that Facebook still has an inverted red triangle emoji in use, which looks exactly the same, so it’s curious they would target only this ad. The image is also not included in the Anti-Defamation League’s database of symbols of hate.”

In statement which appeared to misunderstand or deliberately misinterpret the reason why the ad was removed, Murtaugh suggested that its removal shows that Antifa is a hate organisation: “It is ironic that it took a Trump ad to force the media to implicitly concede that Antifa is a hate group.”

Although European anti-fascist activists briefly used the inverted red triangle as a symbol in the post-war period (an effort to reclaim the symbol, as gay rights activists have done with the inverted pink triangle also used in concentration camps) it is not used by Antifa today. The modern Antifa movement is not a single organised entity, and therefore does not have any official symbols.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on Twitter: “The Nazis used red triangles to identify their political victims in concentration camps. Using it to attack political opponents is highly offensive.”

Facebook removed the ads for violating its community standards.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, told lawmakers that the ads had been removed because the company does not allow hate symbols to be used unless they are uploaded with “context or condemnation”.

“In a situation where we don’t see either of those, we don’t allow it on the platform, and we remove it. That’s what we saw in the case with this ad, and anywhere that that symbol is used, we would take the same action,” he said.

Gleicher appeared at a meeting of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee alongside representatives from Twitter and Google. The tech company representatives were questioned about how their platforms would tackle the spread of disinformation, particularly with regards to the Covid-19 pandemic and the upcoming US presidential election.

Unlike Twitter, which has flagged or hidden Trump’s tweets for various reasons, Facebook has allowed the same messages to remain on its platform. This includes a warning to anti-racist protestors that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”, which Twitter had hidden for glorifying violence. A number of Facebook employees protested against this inaction with a virtual walkout and public messages criticising the company leadership.

The limited action taken by Twitter against Trump’s tweets has provoked the President into threatening to remove a longstanding protection for internet platforms, although it is unlikely that these protections will be removed.

The social media company has attracted criticism for taking a laissez-faire attitude to political advertising compared with Google (which owns YouTube) and Twitter.

While Twitter has banned virtually all political advertising and Google has announced some restrictions such as a ban on microtargeting, Facebook has repeatedly refused to introduce significant restrictions on what content may be posted. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally defended the right to lying in political adverts as a matter of freedom of expression.

After permitting a number of controversial Trump adverts to run on its main platform, Facebook has taken action by removing a Trump ad which violates Facebook’s community standards.

The campaign ads for Trump and running mate Mike Pence featured an image of an inverted red triangle identical to the symbol used in Nazi concentration camps to identify political prisoners. The campaign advert attacking Antifa, a group of loosely-connected and autonomous groups of anti-fascist and anti-racist activists, began running on Wednesday of this week. They were online for approximately 24 hours before being removed.

Trump has expressed interest in designating Antifa as a terrorist organisation after making largely unsubstantiated claims that Antifa activists were responsible for violent clashes amid anti-racism protests. It is not clear how Trump would designate Antifa a terrorist organisation.

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign, Tim Murtaugh, defended the posts, stating: “The inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Antifa, so it was included in an ad about Antifa. We would note that Facebook still has an inverted red triangle emoji in use, which looks exactly the same, so it’s curious they would target only this ad. The image is also not included in the Anti-Defamation League’s database of symbols of hate.”

In statement which appeared to misunderstand or deliberately misinterpret the reason why the ad was removed, Murtaugh suggested that its removal shows that Antifa is a hate organisation: “It is ironic that it took a Trump ad to force the media to implicitly concede that Antifa is a hate group.”

Although European anti-fascist activists briefly used the inverted red triangle as a symbol in the post-war period (an effort to reclaim the symbol, as gay rights activists have done with the inverted pink triangle also used in concentration camps) it is not used by Antifa today. The modern Antifa movement is not a single organised entity, and therefore does not have any official symbols.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on Twitter: “The Nazis used red triangles to identify their political victims in concentration camps. Using it to attack political opponents is highly offensive.”

Facebook removed the ads for violating its community standards.

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of security policy, told lawmakers that the ads had been removed because the company does not allow hate symbols to be used unless they are uploaded with “context or condemnation”.

“In a situation where we don’t see either of those, we don’t allow it on the platform, and we remove it. That’s what we saw in the case with this ad, and anywhere that that symbol is used, we would take the same action,” he said.

Gleicher appeared at a meeting of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee alongside representatives from Twitter and Google. The tech company representatives were questioned about how their platforms would tackle the spread of disinformation, particularly with regards to the Covid-19 pandemic and the upcoming US presidential election.

Unlike Twitter, which has flagged or hidden Trump’s tweets for various reasons, Facebook has allowed the same messages to remain on its platform. This includes a warning to anti-racist protestors that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”, which Twitter had hidden for glorifying violence. A number of Facebook employees protested against this inaction with a virtual walkout and public messages criticising the company leadership.

The limited action taken by Twitter against Trump’s tweets has provoked the President into threatening to remove a longstanding protection for internet platforms, although it is unlikely that these protections will be removed.