TRUMP TO REMAIN BANNED ON FB, INSTAGRAM: OVERSIGHT BOARD
Donald Trump remains banned from posting on Facebook, the company’s independent content oversight board ruled, extending the former US president’s exile from the largest social network and leaving him without one of his favourite ways to reach supporters and goad opponents.
Facebook suspended Trump’s account after he encouraged his supporters to march on the US Capitol on January 6 in what became a deadly attempt to stop the counting of electoral college votes for Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump remains banned from posting on Facebook, the company’s independent content oversight board ruled, extending the former US president’s exile from the largest social network and leaving him without one of his favourite ways to reach supporters and goad opponents.
Facebook Inc suspended Trump’s account after he encouraged his supporters to march on the US Capitol on January 6 in what became a deadly attempt to stop the counting of electoral college votes for President Joe Biden. The ban was originally temporary, but was changed to an indefinite suspension the following day. The board’s decision is binding.
Trump is also banned from Twitter, meaning the president who used social media to build his first campaign for public office and who used it to insult rivals, announce major policy decisions and drive the national conversation, is left to issuing press releases and sitting for interviews on conservative television.
Facebook had asked the oversight board, an independent group of academics, lawyers and others, to review its decision to suspend Trump and determine whether it should be overturned.
The company had previously committed to acting at the
board’s recommendation.
The decision comes at a time when social-media platforms are facing increasing scrutiny over their handling of political content and disinformation, which has prompted lawmakers from both parties to take aim at a prized liability shield that protects the tech giants from lawsuits over content posted by users.
The measure - just 26 words known as Section 230 - now faces its biggest reckoning since it was included in the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Calls to revise it grew in the months before the November election and intensified after the deadly attack on Congress by Trump loyalists.
Trump was also banned from Twitter in January, a move that the company has said is permanent. He was also blocked on Snapchat, YouTube and Twitch, among other networks, following the Capitol riots.