Trump Facebook ban upheld

FACEBOOK Inc’s oversight board yesterday upheld the company’s suspension of former US president Donald Trump but said the company was wrong to make the suspension indefinite and gave it six months to determine a “proportionate response.”

Trump called the decision and his banning across tech platforms “a total disgrace” and said the companies would “pay a political price”.

The board’s verdict has been watched for signals on how the world’s largest social media company will treat rule-breaking political leaders in the future. The board said the company was right to ban Trump following the January 6 storming of the US Capitol by pro-Trump supporters.

But it said Facebook inappropriately imposed a suspension without clear standards and that the company should determine a response consistent with rules applied to other users of the platform. The board said Facebook refused to answer some of its questions, including those on how its news feed and other features affected the visibility of Trump’s posts and whether the company planned to look into how its technology amplified content.

Trump said that “Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth.”

Trump has launched a web page to share messages that readers can then re-post on Facebook or Twitter. He would also launch his own social media platform.