One is the symbol of a regime that killed millions and the other is a profile pic of a British newspaper’s Twitter accounts for breaking news and politics, but despite the obvious differences, some people have struggled to tell which is which. 

Earlier this week, the Telegraph politics Twitter account, followed by nearly 65,000 people, drew attention for its red, white, and black profile picture, which featured the Telegraph logo in a white square on a red background.

The design, which has been used on Telegraph social media accounts for over 5 years, came to Twitter’s attention after a tweet of an article entitled ‘How Gordon Brown added £270 a year to your mortgage payments’ went viral.

🔴 A tax break, scrapped in 2000, could have helped families hit by the surge in interest rates.

Full article: https://t.co/7XKcm4T3ob pic.twitter.com/JybmiPq0wt

— Telegraph Politics (@TelePolitics) June 19, 2023

The profile pic of the @telepolitics account was immediately compared to a swastika by several people on Twitter, with Jewish influencer Hen Mazzig holding a poll on his Twitter account asking his 90,000 followers to decide whether the alleged similarities to the Nazi flag were intentional or not.

After 15 hours, the poll was evenly split 49.9% to 50.1% in favour of it being a deliberate move. 

So...do we think the similarities to the Nazi flag are intentional or not?

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) June 20, 2023

Others pointed out that both the Nazis and the Telegraph used the same colour red in their designs leading to further comparisons between the broadsheet paper and the regime of Adolf Hitler. 

Josh Zitser, a senior news reporter at Insider, tweeted “It’s giving” with a side-by-side comparison of the Telegraph logo and a Nazi swastika. 

It’s giving… pic.twitter.com/NPd6SrCljl

— Joshua Zitser (@mrjoshz) June 19, 2023

The logo has been transformed into memes on Twitter, with several users photoshopping the logo onto paintings of Adolf Hitler and Nazi party rallies. 

https://t.co/ylHzWCWkW5 pic.twitter.com/l111qve9Vx

— Scott Chegg (@buckfastbadlad) June 19, 2023

The Telegraph, which was established 167 years ago, was the first newspaper in the world to break the news of the outbreak of the Second World War. During the War, the Daily Telegraph also helped British intelligence services at Bletchley Park recruit codebreakers via its crossword competition.