Trump banned from Facebook two years
Facebook announced Friday that former President Donald Trump’s accounts will be suspended for two years, extending the suspension that began in January following a finding that Trump stoked violence ahead of the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.
At the end of the suspension, in early 2023, the company “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.
The former president called Facebook’s decision “an insult.”
“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!” he said in a news release.
Social platforms like Facebook and Twitter have become indispensable tools for politicians to get their messages out and to raise small-dollar donations. Without the megaphone of Twitter and the targeted fundraising appeals his campaign mastered on Facebook, Trump could be at a serious disadvantage relative to other politicians.
Trump has not said yet whether he plans to run again for president in 2024. But in a sign of how difficult he finds his current circumstances, the blog he launched with much fanfare earlier this year was shut down after less than a month.
On Facebook, Trump’s suspension means that his account is essentially frozen. Others can read and comment on past posts, but Trump and other account handlers are unable to post new material. Twitter, by contrast, has permanently banned Trump from its service and no trace of his account remains.
Also Friday, Facebook also said it will stiffen penalties for public figures during times of civil unrest and violence. In a color-coded chart on its blog post Friday, the company said those who violate policies during such a time can be restricted from posting for a month (yellow) or as long as two years (red). Future violations, it said, will be met with “heightened penalties, up to and including permanent removal.”
Facebook also plans to end a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that automatically exempted politicians from rules that banned hate speech and abuse. The company has said it has never applied this policy to Trump.
The social media giant said it will still apply this “newsworthiness” exemption to certain posts it deems to be in the public interest, even if they violate Facebook rules. But it will no longer treat material posted by politicians any differently from that posted by anyone else.