Facebook’s Oversight Board decided to uphold former President Donald Trump’s suspension for two years.
At that time, they will reassess his “risk” before they allow him on the platform.
Facebook kicked Trump off the platform in January after the Capitol Hill riots.
From Fox Business:
“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year,” Facebook announced.”At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded.”The oversight board had previously criticized the open-ended nature of Facebook’s suspension of the outgoing president as an “indeterminate and standardless penalty.” The board said at the end of the two-year suspension it would look to “instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest” to determine if Trump’s accounts were still a threat to public safety. It said Trump would be subject to severe sanctions if he further violated Facebook’s rules.
In early May, the board upheld the ban, but said the platform cannot make it permanent. I guess if they ban Trump again after two years it does not count as permanent? They’d have to let him back on eventually, no?
Facebook thanked the Oversight Board, especially for agreeing that Trump should remain off the social media giant:
“We know today’s decision will be criticized by many people on opposing sides of the political divide,” Facebook said in its post on Friday, adding that “our job is to make a decision in as proportionate, fair and transparent a way as possible, in keeping with the instruction provided by the Oversight Board.”Facebook created and funded the Oversight Board to independently rule on the company’s toughest content decisions, and the Trump suspension is by far its most high-profile case to date.
I envision many Congressional hearings with Facebook officials in the near future.
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