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Facebook removes Trump’s anti-immigrant election advertising
The online network Facebook removed the election announcements of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, with statements critical against the refugees. Facebook said Thursday that the platform did not allow people to be portrayed as a threat to the “safety, health and life” of other people because of their origin or immigration status.
Election announcements said Trump’s challenger Joe Biden of the Democratic opposition was “dangerous for the United States” because, as president, he would allow many more refugees from Syria and Somalia to enter the country. The countries are known as “terrorist hot spots” and reference is made to the current corona pandemic. This suggests that refugees could pose a risk to the health and safety of the United States.
Facebook had already blocked ads from Trump’s campaign team in June that contained a symbol used in Nazi concentration camps for political prisoners. Trump’s team had warned about “radical left groups” with an inverted red triangle.
Ahead of the US presidential election on November 3, online platforms are under great pressure to address hate speech and disinformation online. Facebook has now announced stricter rules for paid content on the election process and outcome. Not only would advertisements proclaiming the winner of the presidential election be prematurely banned, but also advertisements intended to cast doubt on the election result.
This could be the case if an electoral method is described as particularly susceptible to fraud, or if “isolated instances of electoral fraud” are used to cast doubt on the overall result, Facebook manager Rob Leathern said.
Trump has been raising doubts about the electoral process for months and claims, without any evidence, that postal elections are massively misled. Observers fear that the president, who has passed the polls, will not recognize a possible electoral defeat.
