The Facebook Oversight Board decided on Wednesday (May 5) to continue blocking former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Facebook account, but also accused Facebook of trying to evade responsibility by referring the case to the board after imposing “vague, standardless penalties.
The oversight committee said in a statement that “Trump’s posts during the riots at the Capitol seriously violated Facebook’s rules, encouraged violence, and legitimized these activities.” Two of the posts in question included Trump saying on Jan. 6 that his supporters were “very special.” The commission said the posts “violate the company’s rules against praising or supporting people who engage in violence.”
The commission also found that Facebook improperly called the account suspensions “indefinite” on Jan. 7, suspending Trump’s account periodically or permanently without following clear, published procedures. The commission said that “Facebook is not permitted to turn users away for an indeterminate period of time, and there are no standards for when or if the account will be reinstated.”
The Commission also said, “By imposing a vague, standardless penalty (meaning an indefinite suspension) and then referring the case to the Commission for resolution, Facebook is attempting to evade its responsibilities. The Commission denied Facebook’s request and insisted that Facebook apply a clear penalty and justify it.”
In response to the oversight committee’s latest resolution, Trump responded, “What Facebook, Twitter and Google have done is a complete disgrace and disgrace to our country. The President of the United States has had his freedom of speech taken away because radical leftist lunatics are afraid of the truth, but the truth will come out anyway, and it will be bigger and stronger than ever.”
“The people of our country will not tolerate this! These corrupt social media companies must pay a political price and must no longer be allowed to undermine and destroy our electoral process.” Trump said.
Facebook did not immediately respond about when it would announce how long Trump’s account would be suspended.
Facebook blocked Trump’s account in early January, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming at the time that it was a risk to society to keep Trump posting on the platform after the U.S. Capitol was breached.
The oversight committee’s decision was supposed to be made on Jan. 21, 90 days after Facebook submitted its injunction to it, but given the more than 9,000 public comments they received, committee members wanted more time to consider their options. The case was reviewed by five members, and their decision was required to be signed by a majority of the committee.
The Facebook Oversight Committee was formed last year. With broad weighing power, it can overturn the company’s decisions. Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications, said last year that “Facebook will implement the committee’s decisions unless doing so may violate the law and will respond constructively and in good faith to the policy guidance the committee offers.”
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee called the committee’s decision “pathetic” on Wednesday. Democrats, meanwhile, largely declined to comment on the issue or endorse the ban.
In addition to Facebook and Instagram, Trump’s Twitter account was permanently suspended in January, and YouTube suspended Trump’s credentials in the same month, but kept open the possibility of allowing him to regain access.
On Tuesday (May 4), Trump launched a new social media platform with a Twitter-like page and uploaded several Republican missives and videos. But the platform does not currently allow people to post comments or other feedback, making it more like a blog.
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