Facebook bans Nazi campaign ads, for using extremist Trump cult symbols
"Usually we only intervene in really serious cases, such as a status including the word 'men', or photos containing a woman's nipple. But we thought this time, we really outta step it up.
Facebook has finally taken a first step toward tackling online extremism, by banning Nazi campaign ads on its site that featured the symbology of the controversial and vile far-right icon, Donald Trump, and his bizarre cultist followers.
Some in journalism have been reluctant to draw ties between Trump and his cave-dwelling cohort being as bad as Hitler or the Nazis, and rightly so, as the false comparison would likely lead to the further drastic erosion of journalistic objectivity, and the rehabilitation of other vile historical figures. As well as the washing away of understanding of the horrors and evils the Nazis carried out. But this time the comparison is the other way around and is funny, so it's perfectly OK.
The ads had already been seen by over a million people, according to data from Facebook, and featured several disturbing items of small-dick iconography.
The main symbol in question is that of an orange triangle - a very badly spray painted orange triangle - with The Donald being urinated on by Mike Pence and Ted Cruz dressed as two Russian sex workers, whilst graphics of general election poll numbers crumble around him.
Mark Zuckerberg's social media giant has been under-fire for some time now from activists, and members of the general public, for repeatedly refusing to deal with organised and/or violent extremism on their site. Suspicion is rife, in fact, that they are likely not interfering to try to curry political favour with those in power, which right now is the far/idiotic right.
In response today though to the question of whether they went too far to censor the ad, on whether the curbing of violent right-wing speech would set a dangerous precedent for society, Facebook released a special statement, saying:
"No."
In a separate release, they expanded on the issue, saying that use of the symbols in question violated their rules "against organised hate, and not being a massive twat".
Through his human-android form, which he periodically transfers his cloud-stored essence into whenever he needs to interact with the carbon based, Zuckerbot said:
"Usually we only intervene in really serious cases, such as a status including the word 'men', or photos containing a woman's nipple. But we thought this time, we really outta step it up."
"Don't get me wrong, the Nazis are way worse, and their stuff should be taken down, de facto. But I have been busy practising lying to Congress, so I never got around to it. Trump, however, and his posse of nut-job, racist basement hounds, whose hardcore supporters have a collective IQ in the single digits, are doing some serious damage in society, and anyone promoting their material needs to be seen to.
Trump is, as ever, being a real obnoxious, megalomaniac power-tripping dick - and there's room for only one of those in town."
Anyone promoting his buffoonery gets the Zucc."
In a statement on the marketing snafu, Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, said: "We new it would cause a problem, and was likely a step too far. I mean, who are we kidding? But, we couldn't miss the opportunity to tap into such an obedient cesspool.
I mean, we thought we had right-wing propaganda down, but when we saw the likes of Fox News, Glenn Beck, the IDW, and others, all driving the Trumpian and broader far-right movement of today, in the way that they do? Well, we just couldn't pass up an opportunity to learn from and imitate the masters."
We reached out to a historian for comment on the issue: "Is it right that the ads were taken down? Absolutely - right-wing extremism has been the source of the vast majority of terrorism and other organised violence in the US, for years now. Yet it's been covered up and systematically ignored. Hopefully, taking down these ads, on what is technically a private platform, will have a direct affect online, as well as spurring more of a peaceful national conversation on the issue, overall.
I'm just surprised the Klan didn't copy 'em, first."
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