Photo: Donald Trump, via Twitter
This just isn’t Donald Trump’s week, is it? Recently, TikTok users spread a viral protest, making Trump believe his Tulsa rally would have more attendees than it did. Before that, Twitter marked another misleading tweet from the president as a doctored video and Facebook finally stood up to Trump. They drew a line, and Trump crossed it. Facebook pulled ads the Trump reelection campaign purchased that featured Nazi symbolism.
Yes, apparently the line that Facebook finally wasn’t willing to let Trump cross dealt with Nazi symbolism in ads. The fact that we have a 2020 presidential candidate using Nazi symbolism and that Facebook allowed everything up to this point (including posts containing hate speech) should be troubling.
In This Article:
Twitter’s Labeling… Again
Late last month, Twitter labeled two of Trump’s tweets for containing misleading information about elections. It’s a violation of Twitter’s rules to use the platform to publish incorrect or misleading information about voting, as this could undermine democracy in a region. It’s especially bad when a politician does it in order to sway the outcome of a vote. That’s exactly what Trump did though. He knows that when more people have access to voting, Republicans lose. That’s why he’s trying to prevent people from voting using these means. Twitter has no time for world leaders who hate democracy, and labeled his posts as misleading.
Manipulated Media
The text on this graphic looks awful, how did Trump not realize it was fake?
This time, Trump tweeted a video that applied a false narrative, as well as CNN’s branding. The goal was to undermine CNN’s credibility with a fake story. A video of two toddlers, one white, and one black, hugging went viral after someone manipulated it to make it seem as though the black child was running away from a “racist toddler.” An edit added the CNN logo and a poorly edited “Breaking News” headline chyron. The headline wasn’t from CNN, the video wasn’t from CNN, and someone edited the video to push a narrative. Trump spun it to be about how you can’t trust the mainstream media like CNN.
That’s right, Trump use a fake video featuring a CNN logo to try to dismantle trust in CNN. The sad thing is, it likely worked.
Twitter labeled the video as “Manipulated Media,” a label they use for media that someone edits to spin a narrative. This isn’t the first time Twitter has used the “Manipulated Media” label on a video Trump or his supporters have shared. In March, they labeled an edited video of Joe Biden as manipulated. Trump had retweeted that video.
Where Facebook Draws the Line (and Where they Don’t)
Facebook has allowed Trump to get away with a lot. He broke their hate speech rules when he stated that he wanted to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. Facebook did nothing. They didn’t want to upset their conservative users. Later, Facebook sided with Trump, allowing politicians to include provable and obvious falsehoods in their political ads. If Donald Trump wants to say Joe Biden was a mob boss in Ukraine in a Facebook ad, he can. Trump’s followers don’t care that he lies, but liberal voters do want an honest politician. By allowing politicians to lie in Facebook ads, the company has taken the side of Republicans.
However, Trump’s campaign finally pushed their luck. Facebook’s love for conservative politicians and their rowdy followers only goes so far. Trump’s latest ad campaign featured Nazi imagery, and Facebook finally took action.
The Red Triangle
Nazis used an inverted red triangle badge to label political prisoners in concentration camps. Many are aware that the Nazis forced Jewish people to wear the 6-pointed Star of David. Some know that they also forced LGBTQ people to wear a pink triangle. What you might not know is that the Nazis forced many prisoners to wear markings. Those who took a political stand against Nazism were forced to wear the red triangle.
The Trump campaign just used that symbol to label Trump’s political rivals.
No, really.
Facebook recognized the obvious Nazi symbolism here. The ad was even using the Nazi badge in context, complaining about “far-left” groups. Facebook removed the ad for using Nazi symbols, but Trump’s white nationalist base got the message. Trump’s rallying his most ardent fans, assuring that a vote for Trump is a vote for white supremacy. For his strongest supporters, that’s a good thing.
It’s possible over a million people saw the ad before Facebook removed it.
Trump’s Response
The Trump campaign tried to make the claim that they used the image because it’s associated with Antifa. After all, being anti-Nazi would mean you’d have to wear a red triangle in Nazi Germany. Being anti-fascist or “Antifa” then would mean you’re anti-Hitler. Since Trump has declared antifascists as enemies of America, he certainly could say that all of them would be classified under the red triangle… if he was a fascist leader in Nazi Germany. Is that what he’s insinuating?
The actual Antifa symbol is a pair of black and red flags, copied from the original German Antifa organization. You can see it above on a sticker pasted to a sign. The red triangle is not a recognized symbol of Antifa, that is, unless, Trump is stating that his rivals, being ant-fascist by opposing him, would be fit for the Nazi badge?
Even with Trump’s explanation for why his campaign selected the red triangle for his ads, and even if you believed him, despite evidence to the contrary, why would you use Nazi badges for political rivals to the Nazis for your own political rivals?
Where do we Go Now?
Trump showed his true colors on Facebook and Facebook finally took action. Will this mean Facebook will finally stop coddling the president? Will they finally take action against his spread of hate speech? The 2020 political climate is heating up, and with one candidate seemingly admitting to being a fascist and nationalist, we can expect social platforms to take action to stand up for their guidelines. Will this further divide our ideological bubbles, or will it finally show conservatives and their representatives that this behavior is unacceptable in America?
We’re only halfway through 2020. Now we know the season finale for this year will involve trying to remove an actual Nazi from office. We kind of saw that coming though, they hinted at it in the 2016 finale.
Sources:
- Jon Fingas, Engadget
- Taylor Hatmaker, Techcrunch
- Richard Lawler, Engadget
- Paige Leskin, Business Insider
- Sam Levine, The Guardian
- Taylor Lorenz, Kellen Browning, and Sheera Frenkel, The New York Times
- Isaac Stanley-Blecker, The Washington Post