Twitter says it won’t suspend Louis Farrakhan over tweet comparing Jews to termites

by Megan Keller - 10/17/18 6:24 PM ET

Twitter said Wednesday that it will not suspend Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan over a tweet comparing Jews to termites, the company confirmed to The Hill.

Farrakhan, who has been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks for years, posted a clip to Twitter of a speech he gave captioned, “I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite.”

The tweet prompted backlash on the platform, with figures such as Chelsea Clinton blasting it as anti-Semitic.

“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,” Clinton wrote.

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

Others put forward the tweet as an example of Twitter’s inconsistent content policing.

{mosads}”Twitter’s standards are an utterly inconsistent joke,” conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted.

Twitter indicated Wednesday afternoon that its policy barring “dehumanizing” language, which was announced in late September, has not yet gone into effect.

A blog post last month about the new rules stated that after a survey on the changes closes on Oct. 9, the company will begin its “regular process” that involves various teams and working groups.

“We will share some of what we learn when we update the Twitter Rules later this year,” the company added.

The company’s decision to not suspend Farrakhan over his tweet this week was first reported by BuzzFeed.

Twitter has penalized Farrakhan over his remarks in the past. Earlier this year, he lost his verified status for tweeting about “the Satanic Jew and the Synagogue of Satan.”