Twitter Will Not Suspend Farrakhan After Tweet Comparing Jews And Termites

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By Ari Feldman October 18, 2018

Twitter is declining to remove Louis Farrakhan’s account from its site after he posted a video comparing Jews to termites,” Buzzfeed reported.

The site had previously removed his blue verification badge for earlier anti-Semitic remarks. Calls for Farrakhan’s account’s removal came again after he posted a video criticizing Jewish people and making a remark that compared them to termites.

Chelsea Clinton took Louis Farrakhan to task on Twitter Wednesday in reaction to the video, which she compared to Donald Trump referring to immigrants “infesting” the U.S.

Farrakhan, a leader of the Nation of Islam, made the remarks in a speech at a major NOI convention in Detroit of the weekend.

“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. “I can go anywhere in the world, and they’ve heard of Farrakhan.”

“They call me an anti-Semite. Stop it,” Farrakhan said. “I’m anti termite.”

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

Buzzfeed noted that Farrakhan’s tweet apparently violates Twitter’s rules against using “dehumanizing” language on the site.

The site unverified Farrakhan this summer when he tweeted a video with the caption, “Thoroughly and completely unmasking the Satanic Jew and the Synagogue of Satan.”

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at feldman@forward.com. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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