Facebook bans Donald Trump for 2 years
Former U.S. president Donald Trump has been banned from Facebook for two years after encouraging the violent mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the company said Friday.
“At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded.
We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs wrote in a blog post Friday.
Trump was booted off most major social media platforms on Jan. 6 after his supporters marched on the Capitol; he then told them that he “loved” them in the hours following the deadly riot.
Trump had also spent months laying the groundwork for the uprising on social media, where he stoked baseless conspiracy theories that any election loss he suffered would be illegitimate.
Facebook’s independent Oversight Board extended Trump’s suspension by six months in May.
The board also declined to make a final ruling on whether to allow Trump back in the future, and left that decision to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg has long argued that politicians’ speech should not be policed, even when it is offensive, because of its newsworthiness.
The social media giant said on Friday it will no longer give special treatment to politicians, although it will still apply this “newsworthiness” exemption to certain posts it deems to be in the public interest, even if they violate Facebook rules.
Facebook’s decision leaves Trump with few online outlets for his message, even as his supporters call for him to launch another presidential bid in 2024.
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