Update 05/05/2021 10:07am:
According to the Associated Press, Facebook's quasi-independent Oversight Board voted to uphold Donald Trump's ban from the social media website. Trump was initially banned from the website after inciting violence that led to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Oversight board co-chair Michael McConnell stated that it "was not appropriate for Facebook to impose an 'indefinite' suspension." He added, "Indefinite penalties of this sort do not pass the international smell test. We are not cops, reigning over the realm of social media."
The board agreed that two of Trump's posts on January 6 violated Instagram and Facebook's content standards. In one post, Trump told the rioters, "We love you. You’re very special," and in a second post, he called them "great patriots" and told them to "remember this day forever."
It has been four months since Trump's suspension was started, and Facebook has six months to decide on a punishment that reflects the "gravity of the violation and the prospect of future harm." While it wasn't specified how Facebook will do this, the board says if Facebook decides to restore Trump’s accounts, the company must be able to promptly address further violations.
Original 05/05/2019 4:14pm:
This past week, Facebook banned a number of figured who they labeled as dangerous individuals. That list included Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, Infowars, Milo Yiannopoulos, and more. Since then, Trump has criticized social media as a whole because of the ban.
Via his favorite platform—Twitter, Trump said “I am continuing to monitor the censorship of AMERICAN CITIZENS on social media platforms. This is the United States of America— and we have what’s known as FREEDOM OF SPEECH! We are monitoring and watching, closely!!”
He continued on saying that things were “getting worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!” Take a look above.
