Facebook board set to rule on Trump ban

OAKLAND, Calif. — Facebook is passing the buck for its indefinite suspension of former President Donald Trump to a quasi-independent oversight board, setting up a major test of the recently established panel.

The social media giant said Thursday that it believes it made the right decision to suspend Trump after he incited his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in a deadly assault Jan. 6. But it said it’s referring the matter to the oversight board for what it called an “independent judgment” on upholding the decision.

Facebook’s panel is intended to rule on thorny content issues, such as when posts constitute hate speech or if the decision to ban a world leader was the right one. It is empowered to make binding rulings — ones that can’t be overturned by CEO MarkZucker berg—on whether posts or ads violate the company’s rules. Any other findings will be considered “guidance” by Facebook. The board does not set Facebook policies or decide if the company is doing enough to enforce them in the first place.

Its 20 members, which will grow to 40, include a former prime minister of Denmark, the former editor-in-chief of the Guardian newspaper, along with legal scholar and human rights experts.

The first four board members were directly chosen by Facebook. Those four then worked with Facebook to select additional members. Facebook also pays the board members’ salaries.

Twitter, by contrast, permanently banned Trump. CEO Jack Dorsey defended his company’s ban in a thread last week, saying that resulting risk to public safety created an “extraordinary and untenable circumstance” for the company.