By Aaron Miller-
Facebook says it will suspend former US president Donald Trump’s accounts for two years following its finding that he stoked violence ahead of the fatal January 6 insurrection.
Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post: “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.”
His account, according to the company, will remain suspended until 7 January 2023, and he will only be reinstated if the “risk to public safety has receded.” Even if the b return, he will face “a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions” that would be applied if he broke more user rules.
Mark Zuckerberg said at the time his drastic action against the then-president was essential to prevent more political violence ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration.
His account, according to the company, will remain suspended until 7 January 2023, and he will only be reinstated if the “risk to public safety has receded.” Even if the bombastic ex-president does return, he will face “a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions” that would be applied if he broke more user regulations.
Mark Zuckerberg said at the time his dramatic action against the then-president was essential to prevent more political violence ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration.”
Facebook’s independent Oversight Board, a body which scrutinizes high-profile decisions about its users, upheld the initial suspension of Mr Trump in May, but they criticised the company over the indefinite time period, which led Mr Zuckerberg to introducing a time period for suspension.
As a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, Mr Trump posted a video calling for a ban on Muslims entering the US.
Facebook refused to take it down and created the “newsworthiness” policy that allowed posts which broke their own guidelines to remain up because of public interest.
Misleading Information
Mr Trump was regularly criticised for posting misleading information about Covid-19, and also described racial justice protesters as “thugs.”,
Facebook announced in June 2020 that it would put labels on posts that violated hate speech and other policies, even if they were from politicians such as Mr Trump, and pledged to remove any posts which incited violence or voter suppression, regardless of newsworthiness.
Contentious Problem
Facebook also announced its plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that automatically exempted politicians from certain moderation rules on its site.
The social media giant said that while it will still apply this “newsworthiness” exemption to certain posts it deems to be in the public interest even if they violate Facebook rules, it will no longer treat material posted by politicians any differently from what is posted by anyone else.
The move is in response to recommendations from the company’s quasi-independent oversight board, which last month upheld a decision by Facebook to keep Mr Trump indefinitely suspended, but said the company must decide what to do with his accounts within six months.
Trump is still a strong influence in his party and uses social media to spread his voice.