The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is calling on Twitter to take down a tweet from Louis Farrakhan that compares Jews to “termites.”
In an Oct. 16 tweet, Farrakhan wrote, “I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite.” The tweet featured a video of Farrakhan speaking in front of a crowd on Oct. 14 marking the 23rd anniversary of his Million Man March.
“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,” Farrakhan said in the speech. “I can go anywhere in the world and they’ve heard of Farrakhan.”
Farrakhan added, “I’m not mad at you, because you’re so stupid.”
The minister proceeded to allude to criticisms calling him an anti-Semite.
“Stop it,” Farrakhan said, “I’m anti-termite. I don’t know nothing about hating somebody just because of their religious preference.”
https://twitter.com/LouisFarrakhan/status/1052304476923719680
In a statement emailed to the Journal, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that Twitter should take down “Farrakhan’s hateful content.”
“Louis Farrakhan has a long history of vile, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. His latest remarks dehumanizing Jews by calling us termites are despicable,” Greenblatt said. “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.”
Buzzfeed reporter Joe Bernstein tweeted that Twitter told him that Farrakhan’s tweet didn’t violate their policies:
https://twitter.com/Bernstein/status/1052636257531154434
Twitter could not be immediately reached for comment.
Several congressional Democrats, such as Reps. Keith Ellison (R-Minn.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), have reportedly been seen with or dined with Farrakhan. Women’s March leaders have also attended Farrakhan’s speeches and been involved with his Nation of Islam organization. A photo was recently taken of Farrakhan with former Attorney General Eric Holder at Aretha Franklin’s funeral.
This article has been updated.
