On Friday (04/06), Facebook announced that it will maintain Trump's suspension from its platforms until at least January 2023, following the recommendation from his committee. Trump was suspended from Facebook a day after the January 6 storming of the US Capitol, which left 5 people dead, for inciting the violent incident.
“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules, deserving of the strongest penalty available under our new enforcement protocols,” wrote Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of global affairs, in the post.
Facebook's decision to maintain Trump's suspension means the former president will not be able to use the platform during the 2022 congressional elections, but also that he could be back on the social network for the 2024 presidential election. The former US president remains permanently suspended by Twitter e YouTube.
Trump criticizes his Facebook suspension
Trump, of course, was not happy, writing in a statement on Friday: “Facebook’s decision is an insult to the 75 million people, and many more, who voted for us in the Rigged Election of 2020. They should not be allowed to get away with this censorship and silencing, and at the end of the day, we will prevail. Our Country will no longer put up with this abuse! The next time I am in the White House, there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be just business.”
In addition to maintaining Trump's suspension, Facebook also announced that it will begin to consider violations of content from politicians in the same way it considers violations from regular users. Politicians who commit five violations of the platform's rules will receive a suspension of 30 days or more, depending on the severity of the case.
Activists and organizations have long called for social media to take a tougher approach to world leaders who violate their rules, such as Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Jair Bolsonaro.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. Reuters
Image: Gayatri Malhotra/Unsplash
