
Facebook takes down Trump ads 'for violating our policy against organized hate' - thrusong
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/facebook-takes-down-trump-ads-for-violating-our-policy-against-organized-hate-1.4990065
======
ihumanable
"Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group's symbol to identify political
prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol," Andy
Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, told CNN Business.

The "banned hate group" here is Nazis. This symbol was used in concentration
camps. Don't let the corporate speak whitewash that.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badge)

Edit: Not sure why I'm being downvoted. I'm merely pointing out that the
Facebook spokesperson is clearly identifying the violation "a banned hate
group's symbol to identify political prisoners." Since the Facebook
spokesperson was being vague, I brought context in case anyone was curious,
"What banned hate group?" or "which political prisoners?"

~~~
cellularmitosis
This comment, as well as the other comment in this thread which points out
that this was the nazi symbol for political prisoners, are both currently grey
due to downvotes.

I would be interested to hear an explanation of why these comments are being
downvoted.

Are the downvoters suggesting the information is inaccurate? That this wasn't
the nazi symbol for political prisoners?

~~~
ikeyany
You're thinking too charitably. HN has its share of actual white supremacists.

~~~
koheripbal
oh, come on. Frankly, I think demonizing each other is the real damage being
done online and in the media lately.

I'm happy to admit I downvoted the above comment because it's jumping to
conclusions and charged with hyperbole.

I think what's more concerning is the decisive language and open calls for
conflict I've seen on social media. ...and I think we need to really pause for
a moment and remember back, maybe 5-6 years ago to see how we got here...

When Obama was President, the ADL reported that there were, maybe 2000, Nazis
and KKK members in the US. Tho THOUSAND. That's it. No one talked about the
KKK or Nazis. How did we go from _that_ to people accusing anyone who
disagrees with them of being a Nazi?

At first, I was surprised that certain things became more mainstream on Reddit
- like the open disdain for the concept of "compromise", the acceptance that
their own news sources are biased, and the downward spiral of political posts
to simply posting insults - there isn't even an effort to make an argument
anymore.

Initially, I chalked it up to the extremist tendency of the two-party system -
but I'm starting to think there is something more sinister going on. There are
too many new accounts demanding violence. Too many international posters with
no skin in the game voting for the worst responses. Too many threads where
people refuse to discuss and talk only about punitive, and often violent,
actions. This is conveniently exactly what the FBI reported Russian online
teams were doing4 years ago. Maybe they're still at it?

I hope you'll join me in not throwing name calling around. Encouraging more
intelligent discourse - at least on HN? ...and try to believe me when I say
that I honestly believe(d) some idiot intern just posted an upside-down red
triangle.

~~~
drcongo
What conclusions does it jump to?

------
orthecreedence
Whether the symbol is used by Antifa or not doesn't really matter. What
matters is _if people in general associate the symbol with antifa_. I almost
always think of two flags (a red and black flag) when I think of Antifa, or
just the regular anarchist flag.

Look here:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=antifa+logo&tbm=isch&ved=2ah...](https://www.google.com/search?q=antifa+logo&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj1_qbljIzqAhXTATQIHUPqA-
AQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=antifa+logo&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAA6BQgAELEDOgUIABCDAVC-
EVisHGDMHWgAcAB4AIABeIgB1gOSAQM0LjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZw&sclient=img&ei=q8DrXrX9IdOD0PEPw9SPgA4&bih=729&biw=1536)

The google image search for "Antifa logo" does not show the inverted triangle,
except in a post explaining the ad we're all talking about.

Nobody thinks of an inverted triangle when thinking about Antifa. Some people
in the antifa movement may have used the symbol, but it's not associated with
them enough for an ad calling them out to use it.

Why run an anti-antifa ad and use a symbol that people don't associate with
antifa?

~~~
tathougies
Nobody thinks of a nazi concentration camp symbol to label liberals, social
democrats, and any party dissenter (this was not the one used to mark jews)
either.

~~~
happytoexplain
Which is why it was chosen. It's not obvious. It's just a red triangle.

~~~
koheripbal
It's not just "not obvious" \- it's not used at all. ...and hasn't been since
1945. ...and even then it wasn't known except to the people in a few camps.

...so what's your hypothesis here? That he told them to use a near-nonexistent
symbol as a secret message to the, maybe 5 people in the world that remembered
that symbol?

Does that sound like a credible theory to you?

...or isn't it more likely that some stupid intern just fucked up?

~~~
pelliphant
I have no opinion about what is the most likely scenario, but:

Using really far-fetched nazi symbols in campaigns seems like a smart move if
you want maximum attention and for your opponents to call it out, and then
most people going: "?? whats nazi about a triange??".

------
lefrenchy
I think this was absolutely the right move because it was so blatant and
disgusting.

I do however fear that this was a bait. The campaign posts something so
blatant in order to get it taken down to be able to claim victimhood and
enrage the base.

~~~
shiv86
Very interesting related twitter thread:
[https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1273631800636702721](https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1273631800636702721)

~~~
amyjess
And if you check out some of her other tweets on this, such as
[https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1273645070709858305](https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1273645070709858305)

And the replies:
[https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1273650404983631875](https://twitter.com/originalspin/status/1273650404983631875)

88 versions of the ad, and the first sentence of the ad contains 14 words. The
numbers 14/88 have considerable significance here, especially when paired with
the use of a concentration camp symbol..

~~~
robotron
I see how that could be the case but once we start delving into numerology we
start to sound like conspiracy theorists.

~~~
guerrilla
This is why they use it. It's the perfect dog whistle. Google 1488 tattoos to
get an idea of just how serious and prevalent it is.

[1]. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-
whistle_politics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics)

[2].
[https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=1488+tattoos&atb=v209-1&iax...](https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=1488+tattoos&atb=v209-1&iax=images&ia=images)

~~~
mcphage
Sure, but with those tattoos, the 14 & 88 are significant and inescapable.
There’s no ambiguity and their presence is not hidden. But once you’re
counting the number of words in a tweet, you’re talking about things much more
hidden. It doesn’t work well as a dog whistle if the metaphorical dogs can’t
hear it, either.

~~~
bduerst
[https://imgur.com/Z8AICes](https://imgur.com/Z8AICes)

Plenty of ambiguity there. I think you may need to evaluate what your
motivation is to need to keep disbelieving that _racist dogwhistles_ can
actually be ambiguous, especially considering they are that way by design.

~~~
mcphage
You just linked to a picture of a tattoo of the number 1488... I don’t see any
ambiguity. Did you intend to link to a different picture?

~~~
bduerst
A tattoo of just 1488, without any racist symbology, is ambiguous. There is
nothing to make it distinctive from any other number.

Help me understand what you think an ambigous tattoo of 1488 should look like?

~~~
mcphage
Well, along the lines of counting the number of words in a tweet, maybe 14
stars? And then chains, where the linked chains look kinda like 8s? Something
where the 14 and 88 are present, but not obvious unless you think to look for
them.

~~~
ceejayoz
[https://www.dhs.gov/news/2018/02/15/we-must-secure-border-
an...](https://www.dhs.gov/news/2018/02/15/we-must-secure-border-and-build-
wall-make-america-safe-again) is a good example of plausible deniability.

Fourteen word headline, starting with "We must secure..."

Was it intentional? No one will likely ever know.

~~~
steffandroid
> On average, out of 88 claims that pass the credible fear screening, fewer
> than 13 will ultimately result in a grant of asylum.

Why use 88 rather than 100 to illustrate this statistic?

------
bduerst
\- The ad in question: [https://imgur.com/NQuGvDo](https://imgur.com/NQuGvDo)

\- Nazi concentration camp symbols explained:
[https://imgur.com/8xo1Bv2](https://imgur.com/8xo1Bv2)

Associating leftist organizations with this fascist political symbol is almost
guaranteed to be intentional.

Edit: Some people seem to be trying to defend this by saying it's similar,
though not the same, to a symbol used by a small group in Utrecht,
Netherlands. Do you think the president's campaign was really trying to mimic
(rather than just use) an unknown Netherlands based symbol on a U.S. based ad
campaign? Just a day after a National Security Advisor said the president
supported the Chinese Muslim concentration camps?

Or the fact that they ran exactly 88 ads with the symbol?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_(number)#In_white_nationali...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/88_\(number\)#In_white_nationalism_and_supremacism)

~~~
Aachen
Why was this downvoted, is it fake or otherwise misleading? I'm not using
Facebook or from the USA so I'm out of the loop on the original and wouldn't
be able to tell. I'd like to see the ad in question but this makes me wonder
what's up with this (helpful seeming) comment.

~~~
s_y_n_t_a_x
It's wrong, there are Antifa groups that use an upside down red triangle:

[https://www.facebook.com/antifautrecht/](https://www.facebook.com/antifautrecht/)

[https://afanl.wordpress.com/2018/01/30/english-3-2-2018-anti...](https://afanl.wordpress.com/2018/01/30/english-3-2-2018-antifa-
conference-amsterdam-program/)

Seems like Facebook jumped the gun on this and assumed the worst.

\-- reply @ GP edit --

> Rather than making the association that this leftist group deserves to have
> political concentration camp tag?

Yeah I believe your hypothesis is crazy and needs more evidence before jumping
to such a wild assumption. That's why you word vomit with events that loosely
relate to concentration camps and 88 words to support your already loose
conspiracy theory.

Ironic that NOW this symbol will be used against socialists since the WSJ and
Facebook just made it mainstream and assumed that connection.

No one would have never thought of this connection if FB wouldn't have flagged
it and the WSJ didn't immediately report it. Can you honestly say you had this
holocaust knowledge? To assume that on everyone and to go further and assume
malicious intent is even more dishonest.

People wanted this to be so true, but you are all conspiracy theorists today.

~~~
Miner49er
I'm antifa, and I've never seen this symbol used by antifascists, in the US
anyway.

Even if they do, it's likely as a way to subvert the symbol used by the Nazis.
To use it to attack antifa is to use it like the Nazis did. It's like how
black people can use the n-word, but not white people.

~~~
s_y_n_t_a_x
Thank you for your anecdote, but I've posted two examples, one active FB
group.

It seems to be mainly a European usage, but it exists.

I don't see how pointing out a symbol a group uses is attacking them.

I also don't think equating yourself and antifa to the struggle of the
holocaust and slavery is going to win any minds over.

~~~
steffandroid
> I also don't think equating yourself and antifa to the struggle of the
> holocaust and slavery is going to win any minds over.

Thousands of anti-fascists were badged with the red triangle and subsequently
slaughtered in the holocaust, which is precisely why the ad was removed.

------
taurath
POTUS campaign absolutely knows its history. They intentionally walk right up
to the line of outright white supremacy, and go over it to test the boundaries
like right now. When the response isn't that strong it emboldens them that
they can go further. This is boiling the frog so they can get fascism into the
mainstream.

That Facebook policymakers still try to pretend a neutral both-sides-ism
exists and that people aren't bad actors (just like reddit with /r/the_donald)
makes me think they're either idiots or in league with them.

~~~
vkou
Reddit did eventually clean house, though.

r/the_donald is now a dead subreddit, and has been for quite sometime.

~~~
bduerst
Even though it was quarantined, the mods eventually killed it themselves by
restricting who can post.

It's likely they're trying to move the userbase to another subreddit.

~~~
totony
From what I've seen, reddit's policy is to quarantine a subreddit and warn the
admin to moderate more heavily "or be banned". My guess is they did this to
ensure reddit wouldn't ban the subreddit and wipe out its whole history (at
least that's what I'd do if faced with such a situation).

------
mcintyre1994
Has anybody made any suggestion what else the upside down red triangle could
possibly be a reference to? It’s uncomfortable how well it fits his message.

~~~
giarc
WH response was that it's a symbol used by antifa.

"“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 that they
would target only this ad. The image is also not included in the Anti-
Defamation League’s database of symbols of hate. But it is ironic that it took
a Trump ad to force the media to implicitly concede that Antifa is a hate
group.”

~~~
leephillips
What’s all this about “upside down” and “inverted” triangles? A triangle is a
triangle. It doesn’t have a top and a bottom.

~~~
belltaco
Google image search for triangle and check the most common orientation for a
triangle.

------
zucker42
How antifacist became a dirty word in the minds of many Americans is baffling
to me. Also, the fact that people are taking the antifa stuff seriously and
Republicans are just parroting Trump on the matter is ridiculous.

I just skimmed through all the articles here:
[https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/crime/antifa](https://www.foxnews.com/category/us/crime/antifa)
and the only one that is even specific about an alleged instance of organized
violence is an incident in Texas[1][2] and is decidedly bereft of actual
evidence.

It's pretty clear that people are looking to blame the "other side" for any
and all violence.

[1] [https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-investigating-links-
between...](https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-investigating-links-between-
antifa-and-looting)

[2]
[https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Anti...](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Antifa-
arrests-protest-george-floyd-cops-3-arrests-15334331.php)

~~~
rascul
> How antifacist became a dirty word in the minds of many Americans is
> baffling to me. Also, the fact that people are taking the antifa stuff
> seriously and Republicans are just parroting Trump on the matter is
> ridiculous.

There seems to be a history of Antifa inciting violence in recent years.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa_(United_States)#Notable...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifa_\(United_States\)#Notable_actions)

------
hypewatch
Facebook is in a difficult spot right now. They’re in a damned if you do
damned if you don’t situation.

Granted, Zuckerberg and his team in many ways got themselves into this
situation, but at this point it’s hard to see how Facebook moves forward
without regulators, either on the left or the right, calling for antitrust or
privacy laws to be enforced against them.

I’m not sure if you could break up Facebook in the same way that Standard Oil
was, but there is certainly appetite for regulatory action against FB on the
left and the right.

~~~
jacques_chester
> _Facebook is in a difficult spot right now._

Nonsense. Banning all political advertising is the most impartial option. They
just prefer money to even the vaguest approximation of doing the right thing.

~~~
neonate
Wouldn't they have to ban all political posts altogether? Otherwise the ad
stuff would just move into regular accounts.

------
augustt
Of course trying to declare antifa as a terrorist organization is just about
as useful as charging all of anonymous with cybercrime. Creating a common
enemy out of a nebulous group of people that share a political leaning... come
on people this is fascism 101.

------
A4ET8a8uTh0
It is fascinating to watch. my first reaction was more of a surprise more than
anything else. Given this administration track record, I would be willing to
explain it by lack of knowledge. Personally, I could not care less what
symbols are used and I have a family member I never got to meet as he died in
one of the camps.

That said, the more I think about it, the more it seems like a bait. And it
seems to have worked.

We all really need to take a step back. The move seems desperate.

~~~
cryptoz
> Given this administration track record, I would be willing to explain it by
> lack of knowledge.

What about the track record of this administration would lead you to be
willing to explain it by lack of knowledge? If there's one thing the Trump
administration has been extremely knowledgeable about, it's this. Their MO is
to be racist through dogwhistles and increasingly bullhorns.

Their track record should lead you to believe strongly that this is all
intentional and intended to be racist and hateful.

The Trump administration is one week after the next embroiling itself in
unnecessary scandals where they are purveyors of hate speech, racism, and
violence against minorities. It is not one week after the next of incompetence
or 'lack of knowledge', it is years of building on targeted hate directed
towards minorities.

~~~
A4ET8a8uTh0
Um. Red triangle is not the most complex logo ever created. It is within a
realm of possibility that it happened as, um, quality control is somewhat lax
in this administration. I honestly think you are doing your cause disservice
by presenting it this way.

edit: removed not ; added a clarification

~~~
cryptoz
You are ignoring the context of the situation. The context matters. When a
group of people who espouse hate against minorities on a daily basis use
identical symbols as other groups in history who also espoused hate on a daily
basis towards the same minority groups, it is not a coincidence.

Analyzing every move by Trump or his administration or campaign individually,
without context of the surrounding mood of the nation or recent history, will
lead you to the wrong conclusions.

There is a lot more subtle hate in the world than most people were expecting
to exist. But it's there, and when you see time after time the same sneaky
tricks used to spread hate, they no longer look like coincidences at all. The
'simplicity' of the symbol is irrelevant. It is simple by design, to give the
racists who use it a 'cover' for their racism ("see it's just a triangle
you're crazy for seeing things"). The pattern fits, it's racism and hate
directed at minorities.

This is a pattern, and pretending each action in the pattern is unrelated to
each other or likely all coincidences, is effectively disinformation.

These racist and hateful remarks and statements are not all just accidents.

~~~
A4ET8a8uTh0
Decided to delete my original reponse. It may have been too personal an
attack. Sorry for that. I still disagree, but I think I will be stopping here.

------
dorkwood
Something that's always bothered me about articles like this is that they go
into great detail to describe the ad, but don't actually show the ad itself.

~~~
arcticbull
That's intentional, to avoid giving it a yet broader platform.

------
root_axis
Is it a coincidence that this comes the day after the justice department
declared that they intend to push legislation that will diminish section 230
protection? They're coming for Facebook either way so maybe they don't feel
the need to feign total neutrality any longer.

------
loopz
So why the ads. Is it because he's facist? Why rally for hate at all. What's
the end game? More violence?

~~~
asdff
To rally the base and win the election in November. His most rabid and
prolifically viral political base lives off of the loaded tweets and ads
posted using the platform of the President of the United States. This isn't
the first time something like this happened with Trump, nor will it be the
last.

------
itchyjunk
Comment section in HN is generally the most valuable part of reading an
article for me. I hope those people who put out well thought out comments also
bless some of these types of article with their well thought out responses.

As for this article, is the triangle strictly the issue? If the same ad is run
with a different symbol, would it be fine? If that is the case, what are the
list of symbols that are not to be used in ad campaigns?

As someone else commented, I googled antifa symbol and most of the results
seem to be a double flag of some sort. So I am not sure what exactly the
motivation is behind a red triangle (I saw the comment about "nazi
concentration camp symbols").

Lastly, facebook probably removes ads all the time for all sort of minor
reasons. Is there a good reason to believe this was somehow malicious?

~~~
burkaman
Happy to help, but all of these questions have already been answered in this
comment section.

> If the same ad is run with a different symbol, would it be fine?

They did run it with other symbols, and those were not taken down.
[https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1273636769704091654](https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1273636769704091654)

> What are the list of symbols that are not to be used in ad campaigns?

This is like asking for a list of sentences that can't be used. It's obviously
impossible. You can't enumerate every bad thing in the world, especially when
the whole point of being human is that we can invent brand new things.

It's just not a reasonable thing to ask for. It's like a kid in school getting
detention for bullying a classmate and saying "Well this isn't fair, how was I
supposed to know? Give me a list of everything I'm not allowed to say!"

> So I am not sure what exactly the motivation is behind a red triangle (I saw
> the comment about "nazi concentration camp symbols").

Yes, that was it.

> Lastly, facebook probably removes ads all the time for all sort of minor
> reasons. Is there a good reason to believe this was somehow malicious?

Because they said so.

> A Facebook spokesperson told Media Matters in a statement that “We removed
> these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate. Our
> policy prohibits using a banned hate group's symbol to identify political
> prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.”

\- [https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/facebook-let-trump-
cam...](https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/facebook-let-trump-campaign-run-
ads-inverted-red-triangle-infamous-nazi-symbol)

------
cpr
[https://mobile.twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1273704510808965...](https://mobile.twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1273704510808965120)

------
sinuhe69
Interesting:

\- The symbol itself is not in the ADL hate symbol database (checked)

\- Jacob S. Eder, a historian of modern Germany at the Barenboim–Said Akademie
in Berlin on the Post:

“I think it’s a highly problematic use of a symbol that the Nazis used to
identify their political enemies,” he said. “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.”

Update: this comment also got upvoted and downvoted like crazy. Whatever is
the your ideology war, i think you are doomed.

~~~
klyrs
ADL isn't comprehensive. But there's plenty of historical evidence of this.
Come to think of it, that's probably the badge my grandpa wore in Auschwitz.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badg...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badge)

------
jokoon
I guess that's a good first step for facebook. I hope they are going to ramp
up those efforts before the election.

If twitter and facebook are able to contains those ads it may be the first
sign of Trump not being reelected.

I can only hope to see reddit also take some steps in the nexts months. I
really hope they do.

------
tal8d
Well I'm not seeing any mention of it here, so let me fill you in on a little
secret: this symbol is commonly used in cartography to indicate a confirmed
hazard. Anyone with any time in the military or emergency management (and
maybe hazmat) should immediately recognize the symbol.

Fact check it yourself: search "NATO landmine symbol". You'll find the symbol
in use by the UN and NATO, you'll also find standards that dictate
orientation, fill style, and scaling factors.

It has absolutely nothing to do with Nazi concentration camps, and the amount
of hyperventilating over secret Nazi symbols is really disturbing. I don't
know which is worse, that this may largely be performative outrage, or if it
is genuine derangement. Ask yourself: why haven't you been told this already?
Why is the media winding people up instead of fact checking? Why is facebook
outsourcing this disgusting task to the ADL? Also: I predicted this just
yesterday :)

------
contemporary343
Also impressive is the general incompetence shown by the Trump campaign here -
some bozo alt-righter on their social media team probably decided to do this
and no one in the chain of command noticed or cared. (Or, I suppose it's
possible they assented too..)

~~~
ars
Trump managed to go from guaranteed win, to most likely loosing.

And he doesn't seem to care anymore. I don't mean he doesn't care about these
symbols, I mean he doesn't seem to care if he wins anymore.

~~~
brokensegue
at what point was he "guaranteed [to] win"?

~~~
ceejayoz
When the Dems picked Biden. (and I say this as a Dem)

The pandemic shook everything up, but prior to that...

~~~
brokensegue
Biden has out polled Trump since at least February. At no point was Trump's
victory assured. And his defeat is not assured either (donate to the
campaign).

~~~
ceejayoz
> Biden has out polled Trump since at least February.

The same was true for Hillary.

~~~
brokensegue
are you saying Trump was guaranteed win in 2016? Or are you saying you don't
believe polls are indicative? Both positions are wrong.

------
ReptileMan
You have to be very naive to allow free Streisand effect to Trump.

So they would turn a stupid ad that few would see into something that will get
huge audience for free.

Played right into their hands.

------
notRobot
> The Anti-Defamation League said Thursday the triangle "is practically
> identical to that used by the Nazi regime to classify political prisoners in
> concentration camps."

Wow.

------
lopmotr
The red triangle was used by the Nazis to identify political prisoners (eg
communists), not Jews or blacks or anything "hateful" like that. It's
completely normal for countries at war to have political prisoners and even in
peacetime too. America still has it's own political prisoners in prison right
now for crimes like spying and leaking classified information. Other western
countries are even worse, having people locked up for expressing banned
political ideas. Ironically, that includes Nazis themselves in Europe, but
it's also illegal to display the ISIS flag in the UK, for instance. People
obviously love having political prisoners.

~~~
happytoexplain
You're saying that if a person chooses to use a symbol that Nazis used to
identify their political enemies in their prisons, that person can't be
expressing anything hateful because other countries also use symbols to
categorize prisoners. I almost can't believe that you actually think that.

~~~
lopmotr
Yes. Just because the Nazis did it, doesn't make it "hateful" (racist, etc.).
People are going off the rails worrying about any kind of symbols or hints
related to Nazis because they've somehow become a popular bogeyman.

------
jeffdavis
Strategically, this allows Trump to get his ad taken down by facebook, which
has previously not done so. That means he now can claim some kind of
conspiracy against him. If the story does not grow big, that's the end of it,
and a small win for Trump.

If the story grows, then it will become less about the symbol (which is at
least somewhat obscure) and more about antifa. The more the conversation is
about antifa, and the less about unnecessary police violence, the better for
Trump.

Honestly, I don't think FB should have taken down the ad. I don't see what it
really accomplishes. The fact is that Trump has his own audience. The more
media companies fight for control, the more they just make a silo of
themselves and prevent any real trust or dialogue between voters in opposite
parties.

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dominotw
> the red triangle was "a symbol widely used by Antifa."

I am not from US but is this kind of symbols actually used in secret?

I remember prominent democrats( i think maybe even Hilary clinton) and media
claiming ok hand and pepe frog were secret symbols of white supremacists.

~~~
eeZah7Ux
> ok hand and pepe frog were secret symbols of white supremacists.

They are dog whistles, together with "kekistan" and few other hand gestures.

You can find various pictures of known white supremacists groups prominently
showing the gestures.

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tathougies
For context, here is the symbol used on the Antifa Utrecht homepage on
facebook:
[https://www.facebook.com/antifautrecht/](https://www.facebook.com/antifautrecht/)

I'm not sure how anyone can claim it's not related to Antifa.

~~~
happytoexplain
This is a good explanation:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23566826#23566911](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23566826#23566911)

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s9w
"The Anti-Defamation League said"

This story is entirely made up. They explained and even proved where that
symbol came from. MM even claimed that they ran 88 of them - meaning "you know
what". Yes that's actually what people are supposed to believe.

