Facebook takes down Trump campaign ads over 'Nazi hate symbol'

Facebook has removed campaign ads by President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence that featured an upside-down red triangle, a symbol once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners, communists and ors in concentration camps.

Nathaniel Gleicher, company's head of security policy, confirmed at a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday that ads had been removed, saying Facebook does t permit symbols of hateful ideology “unless y're put up with context or condemnation.”

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

ad began running on Wednesday.

In a statement, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said inverted red triangle was a symbol used by antifa so it was included in an ad about antifa. He said symbol is t in Anti-Defamation League's database of symbols of hate. “But it is ironic that it took a Trump ad to force media to implicitly concede that Antifa is a hate group," he added.

Antifa is an umbrella term for leftist militants bound more by belief than organizational structure. Trump has blamed antifa for violence that erupted during some of recent protests, but federal law enforcement officials have offered little evidence of this.

Gleicher appeared with representatives of Twitter and Google at a hearing centered on efforts by techlogy companies to police spread of disinformation, tied to both election and COVID-19, on platforms.

That is a significant challenge in a country facing potentially dramatic changes in how people vote, with expected widespread use of mail-in ballots creating openings to cast doubt on results and even spread false information.

Facebook said Thursday that it is working to help Americans vote by mail, including by tifying users about how to request ballots and wher date of ir state's election has changed.

Vote By Mail tification connects Facebook users to information about how to request a ballot. It is targeted to voters in states where excuse is needed to vote by mail or where fears of coronavirus are accepted as a universal excuse.

In working to facilitate voting by mail during pandemic, company is stepping onto politically sensitive ground. Trump and or Republicans are trying to limit such voting, while Democrats are pushing it to boost turut.

Democrats pressed Facebook and Twitter representatives on why certain content, including tweets by Trump referencing shooting of looters and a video that was doctored to make House Speaker Nancy Pelosi look intoxicated, were t taken down and remained on ir platforms. questions were part of persistent criticism of Facebook by Democrats who say CEO Mark Zuckerberg has refused to take action on inflammatory posts by Trump.

hearing came as Big Tech faces increasing pressure to monitor content and be transparent about accuracy of information visible to users. Twitter has begun labeling tweets based on manipulated media that are attempting to confuse and mislead people, and has taken steps to prohibit paid political advertising, including by government-controlled news media entities.

Trump administration, meanwhile, proposed this week rolling back legal protections for techlogy companies for material posted on ir platforms.

Of particular concern heading into vember are foreign influence operations, reliant on bogus social media accounts, aimed at swaying opinion. An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller revealed a vast Russian effort to sow discord on internet during 2016 presidential election campaign by playing up divisive social issues.

Facebook said that two days before 2018 elections, it dismantled more than 100 accounts linked to same operation. Between January and March of this year, company said it dismantled roughly 1.7 billion accounts.