Pressure Grows on Twitter to Suspend Antisemite Louis Farrakhan for Equating Jews With ‘Termites’
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by Algemeiner Staff
Louis Farrakhan. Photo: Mohammad Ali Marizad via Wikimedia Commons.
Politicians, Jewish leaders and opinion-formers on social media on Thursday joined the growing outcry calling on Twitter to suspend the account of Louis Farrakhan — the antisemitic leader of the Nation of Islam (NoI) sect — over a tweet that degradingly compared Jews with “termites.”
Jonathan Greenblatt — the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League — was adamant that Farrakhan’s content be removed from Twitter immediately.
“Louis Farrakhan has a long history of vile, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric,” Greenblatt said in a statement emailed to The Algemeiner. “His latest remarks dehumanizing Jews by calling us termites are despicable.”
Added Greenblatt: “We call on Twitter to remove Farrakhan’s hateful content from the platform to prevent him from spreading and normalizing such hateful messages. This content is exactly the kind of thing the new Twitter policy the company outlined just a few weeks ago is meant to stop.”
Twitter has adopted a new policy that forbids “dehumanizing” language, for example postings that compare “groups to animals and viruses.” However, a Twitter spokesperson told media outlets on Tuesday that as the policy had not yet been formally implemented, Farrakhan’s account would remain untouched.
Other voices took to Twitter to demand that Farrakhan be removed from the site, among them former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who remarked that the appreciative audience laughter that greeted Farrakhan’s “termites” remark at a rally in Detroit “made my skin crawl.”
Comparing Jews to termites is anti-Semitic, wrong and dangerous. The responsive laughter makes my skin crawl. For everyone who rightly condemned President Trump’s rhetoric when he spoke about immigrants “infesting our country,” this rhetoric should be equally unacceptable to you: https://t.co/EvFp4ULugm
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) October 17, 2018
You cannot bully the Jewish community and all who stand up to bigotry into silence when you spew disgusting hate.
Your anti-Semitic rants will always be condemned. Loudly and clearly. https://t.co/TPnyKvSdcO
— Ted Deutch (@RepTedDeutch) October 18, 2018
They revoked his blue verification! Like removing TSA precheck to punish a hijacker. https://t.co/sDBWYkG9DZ
— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) October 18, 2018
https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo/status/1052746738124161025
