Why won't more Dems denounce Louis Farrakhan's hate speech?
Nation of Islam leader says he's not anti-Semite but 'anti-Termite'; Alan Dershowtiz reacts to the Democrat Party's reluctance to condemn Farrakhan.
Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who in a recent tweet said he was not prejudiced against Jewish people but was simply “anti-Termite,” will be allowed to continue to use the social media platform.
Farrakhan took to the site on Tuesday by posting a video of himself speaking at an event in Detroit, during which he addressed “the members of the Jewish community that don’t like me.”
In a caption to the video, he wrote: “I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite.”
A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that Farrakhan’s account on the platform would not be suspended because his message was not adverse to any policies currently in effect.
Twitter told Fox News that Buzzfeed’s report was accurate.
However, the outlet noted in their Wednesday report that Farrakhan’s tweet infringed on the company’s proposed “dehumanization policy."
Twitter announced via blog post on Sept. 25 that they were seeking “feedback on a policy before it’s part of the Twitter Rules.”
For several months, the company was working on a new guideline to combat “dehumanizing language” on the site, some of which they said was already included in their “hateful conduct policy.”
“But there are still Tweets many people consider to be abusive, even when they do not break our rules,” the blog post said. “With this change, we want to expand our hateful conduct policy to include content that dehumanizes others based on their membership in an identifiable group, even when the material does not include a direct target.”
The public survey was set to conclude on Oct. 9 and an update on the proposed policy’s status would come “later this year,” the blog post said.
The company, which proposed prohibiting dehumanization of “anyone based on membership in an identifiable group,” defined it as “language that treats others as less than human.”
“Dehumanization can occur when others are denied of human qualities (animalistic dehumanization) or when others are denied of their human nature (mechanistic dehumanization). Examples can include comparing groups to animals and viruses (animalistic), or reducing groups to a tool for some other purpose (mechanistic),” the blog post said.
It wasn’t clear whether Farrakhan’s account would've been blocked if the policy had been enacted, Buzzfeed reported, saying the Twitter spokesman did not comment on it.
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