After coming under criticism for refusing to take down controversial posts on President Donald Trump's Facebook page, the social media giant has removed an ad for his re-election campaign that used Nazi imagery.
The post, which was taken down on Thursday, described "dangerous MOBS of far-left groups," calling out Antifa, and featured an upside-down red triangle like the ones the Nazis used to identify political prisoners during World War II.
"We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group's symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol."
Trump has been trying to designate the far-left Antifa movement as a terrorist organization. Facebook has been criticized for its lack of action against some of the president'sr's inciting and inaccurate posts. In late May, CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended the company's decision to leave up the President's statement "when the looting starts the shooting starts," because he said it offered a public warning to users about potential military action. Other platforms like Twitter have taken a harder stance against Trump's misinformation, adding fact-checking statements or labeling them as 'manipulated media.'
Zuckerberg pointed out Facebook has a policy of either removing problematic content or letting it stay up without any labels, but the company is reviewing its policies. Advertising agencies previously told Cheddar that the company's stances were causing some brands to rethink their Facebook marketing budgets, though none had pulled money yet.
A Trump campaign spokesperson told CNN the symbol was commonly used by Antifa. While the Anti-Defamation League acknowledged some members of the group have used the icon, it is more widely connected with the Nazi movement.
