Twitter takes aim at Louis Farrakhan with new rule against ‘dehumanizing’ language

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan lost his Twitter privileges Tuesday after the social media company widened its rules against hateful conduct.

Twitter took action against Mr. Farrakhan’s account shortly after announcing that its rules were being expanded to prohibit users from dehumanizing others on the basis of religion.

One of Mr. Farrakhan’s most controversial Twitter posts — a 2018 tweet comparing Jewish people to termites — disappeared from public view moments later, CNN first reported.

“It’s against our rules to dehumanize others based on religion,” a Twitter spokesperson told the network. “That tweet is now unavailable.”

Twitter said that it will not permanently suspend any accounts for previously posting content prohibited by the policy change, but that users found in violation of the new rule would be required to remove offending content before having their tweeting privileges restored.

Mr. Farrakhan’s account last tweeted to its more than 300,000 followers prior to Twitter announcing the policy change Tuesday morning.

Nation of Islam did not immediately return a request for comment.

Posted by Mr. Farrakhan’s account last October, the offending tweet contained an excerpt from an address he gave that month in Detroit, Michigan.

“I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite,” he captioned a video of the speech shared on Twitter.

Mr. Farrakhan, 86, has led the Nation of Islam since 1977. He was among a handful of widely followed social media users outright banned from Facebook in May when the company took action against account holders accused of promoting or engaging in violence or hate.