One of Louis Farrakhan's anti-Semitic tweets from 2018 has made its way around Twitter, prompting outrage from conservatives and religious groups alike. "I'm not an anti-Semite, I'm anti-termite," Farrakhan said in the now-deleted tweet.
The social media network on Tuesday released new rules against hateful conduct.
“Our primary focus is on addressing the risks of offline harm, and research shows that dehumanizing language increases that risk,” Twitter said. “As a result, after months of conversations and feedback from the public, external experts and our own teams, we’re expanding our rules against hateful conduct to include language that dehumanizes others on the basis of religion."
“We create our rules to keep people safe on Twitter, and they continuously evolve to reflect the realities of the world we operate within,” Twitter said in the statement.
A spokesperson for the social media website explained why Farrahkan's tweet was pulled.
“It’s against our rules to dehumanize others based on religion,” a Twitter representative told CNN. “That tweet is now unavailable.”
From now on, any reported tweets like the ones below will need to be removed from Twitter, as long as they were posted before the new rules went into effect:
The person's account will be placed on hold, but not suspended, until the offensive tweet is removed.
Although Farrakhan's account was de-verified back in 2008. Last week, Farrakhan was banned from Facebook and Instagram, along with other people, like Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer and Paul Nehlen. They were labeled as being "dangerous," the Daily Caller reported.
Farrakhan has the opportunity to appeal Twitter's decision. As of now, no appeal has been filed, the New York Daily News reported.