Facebook takes down Trump ads featuring symbol used by Nazis

Facebook on Thursday took down Trump campaign ads against antifa that prominently featured a symbol used by Nazis to designate political prisoners, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to The Hill.

“We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organized hate,” Facebook 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.”

The ads featured an inverted red triangle, which was used by Nazis to identify political opponents including communists, social democrats and liberals at concentration camps.

The symbol was included in 88 ads run by pages for President Trump, Vice President Pence and “Team Trump” alongside text warning readers of “Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups” and asking them to sign a petition against antifa, a loose group of radical activists that use direct action to fight against fascism.

Just the ads on Trump’s page were seen as many 950,000 times before being taken down.

The Trump campaign is defending using the image, calling it a “common Antifa symbol” in a statement to The Hill.

The campaign directed The Hill toward shirts, stickers and posters on websites were users can upload whatever design they would like to.

The most common symbol used to identify antifa is a black and red flag or three arrows inside a circle.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted Thursday that “Nazis used red triangles to identify their political victims in concentration camps.”

“Using it to attack political opponents is highly offensive,” Greenblatt said. “@POTUS’ campaign needs to learn its history, as ignorance is no excuse for using Nazi-related symbols.”