Who is Louis Farrakhan and why he’s a problem for Democrats
A look at Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and why he’s a problem for Democrats
Twitter has refused to comment on anti-Semitic tweets from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, including one where he writes "the Jews have control over those agencies [FBI] of government."
When reached for a response by Fox News, a Twitter spokesman said the company does not comment on individual accounts. The spokesman pointed Fox News to the company's help center, where it details its enforcement options and its approach to enforcement philosophy and policy development.
The 84-year-old Farrakhan posted several bizarre tweets regarding Jews this week, including the aforementioned tweet about government agencies, specifically the FBI.
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"The FBI has been the worst enemy of Black advancement," Farrakhan wrote on Twitter. "The Jews have control over those agencies of government."
Farrakhan, who is verified on Twitter, also wrote another inflamatory tweet referencing the Talmud, a central text in the Jewish religion.
Several social media users took to Twitter to express their displeasure with Farrakhan's tweets.
Farrakhan has been accused of acting in an anti-Semitic manner previously, including by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2014. Last month, Farrakhan gave a near three-hour speech in which he said "powerful Jews" were his enemies, blaming Jews for the "degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out turning men into women and women into men," according to the New York Times.
An unreleased photo from 2005 of then-Senator Barack Obama and Farrakhan has recently emerged, further putting the spotlight on the activist leader.
Farrakhan has denied claims he is anti-Semitic, including once on Twitter this week.
"What have I done to make Jewish people hate me?" Farrakhan tweeted on March 6.
Abuse on the platform
Twitter has come under fire for the way it handles abuse on its platform and has even questioned the role it plays in society.
Earlier this month, CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted a mea culpa for the way Twitter handles the problems it faces on its platform.
Twitter has aggressively pursued alt-right accounts on its platform, suspending some accounts and removing verification labels from others.
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“We have witnessed abuse, harassment, troll armies, manipulation through bots and human-coordination, misinformation campaigns, and increasingly divisive echo chambers,” Dorsey wrote on March 1. “We aren’t proud of how people have taken advantage of our service, or our inability to address it fast enough.”
Those comments come nearly a year to the day, when in April 2017, Dorsey gave an interview with the technology publication Backchannel, including discussing harassment on its site.
"We recognized that the very nature of the product was giving unfair advantage to people who wanted to harass," Dorsey said in an interview with Steven Levy. "So we needed to change the product experience. We made it a priority last year, but to be very frank and honest, we only shipped one meaningful thing all year. So our progress is not something that we are proud of."
Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia
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