H Jenkins on May 5, 2021
Update: Bloomberg reports that the Facebook Oversight board will keep Trump off the platform indefinitely. “At the time of Mr. Trump’s posts, there was a clear, immediate risk of harm and his words of support for those involved in the riots legitimized their violent actions. As president, Mr. Trump had a high level of influence.”
Original: Donald Trump and his followers caused a huge stir when they did not accept the results of the 2020 Presidential Election. That led to a January 6th insurrection on the Capital Building in Washington, D.C. shortly after that Donald Trump was suspended from Twitter and Facebook to boot.
Mark Zuckerberg made the call on January 7th to ban Donald Trump from the giant social media site. He explained his reasoning with a long post on the website he created.
The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.
His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.
Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.
Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.
We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.
Trump’s ban was reviewed by an oversight committee appointed with members who are not affiliated with Facebook. They handed down a ruling that Trump’s ban from Facebook will continue. A former Prime Minister of Denmark was part of that committee.
Donald Trump isn’t happy about not being allowed back on Facebook, and his followers are just as upset. That won’t change Facebook’s ruling on the matter as the oversight committee’s decision backed up Zuckerberg’s previous call to ban the former POTUS.
May 5, 2021 9:45 am
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