Facebook has deleted a video from Louis Farrakhan’s account that compares Jews to termites. The material oversteps Facebook’s hate speech rules, the social media giant told TheWrap on Thursday.
“The video was taken down because it violates our hate speech policies,” a Facebook representative told TheWrap.
In the video posted earlier this week, Farrakhan said, “Stop it. I’m anti-termite,” in response to critics that call him an anti-Semite. The comment drew laughter and applause from his audience.
The video was still live on Facebook as of Wednesday afternoon. It was taken down by Facebook because Farrakhan “refers to Jews as termites, which amounts to Tier 1 hate speech,” according to the company’s policies, the Facebook rep told TheWrap.
A Tier 1 violation, according to Facebook’s community standards, includes attacks comparing a person or group of people to “animals that are culturally perceived as intellectually or physically inferior.” Tier 1 infractions also prohibit “violent” and “dehumanizing speech.”
Farrakhan had posted the video to his 960,000 followers with the following caption: “To members of the Jewish Community that don’t like me. Thank you very much for putting my name all over the planet. Because of your fear of what we represent, I can go anywhere in the world and they’ve heard of Farrakhan. Thank you very much.”
Below is a transcription of the two-minute clip, which was live on Twitter at the time of this writing.
“Now, white folk don’t like Farrakhan. Some of them respect me. But those who have been our deceivers, they can’t stand me. I’m not mad with you. In fact, to the members of the Jewish community that don’t like me, thank you very much for putting my name all over the planet because of your fear of what we represent, I can go anywhere in the world and they’ve heard of Farrakhan. Thank you very much. I’m not mad at you, because you’re so stupid. Don’t you know my teacher, Elijah Muhammed, taught me one day: he said, ‘There once was a donkey that fell in a ditch, and everybody came along and picked up a stone and threw it at the donkey. They threw so many stones til the ditch got filled up, and the donkey walked out.’ So my teacher said, ‘Brother, remember: every knock is a boost.’ So when they talk about Farrakhan, call me a hater, call me anti-Semite. Stop it. I’m anti-Termite. I don’t know nothing about hating somebody because of their religious preference.”
Facebook said the violation had placed a strike on Farrakhan’s account.