Facebook extends Trump ban to two more years

REUTERS

After determining that former US President Donald Trump promoted violence ahead of the deadly US Capitol rioting on January 6, Facebook said it will deactivate his accounts for two years.

In a blog post published on Friday, Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president of global affairs, said, "At the conclusion of this period, we will seek to experts to determine whether the risk to public safety has subsided."

“We will assess external variables such as acts of violence, bans on peaceful assembly, and other indicators of civil unrest,” says the statement.

Mr. Trump's suspension on Facebook has effectively put his account in "Facebook jail," where others can read and comment on previous posts but Mr. Trump and other account admins are unable to upload new content.

Facebook also intends to scrap a contentious policy championed by CEO Mark Zuckerberg that exempted politicians from hate speech and abuse regulations.

Mr Trump has never been subjected to this policy, according to the company.

While the social media giant will continue to apply the "newsworthiness" exemption to certain posts it deems to be in the public interest, even if they violate Facebook rules, material posted by politicians will no longer be treated differently than material posted by anyone else, the company said on Friday.

Furthermore, Facebook stated that once the exception is applied to a post, it will make it public.


The announcements are in response to the company's quasi-independent monitoring board's recommendations.

Publish : 2021-06-05 08:04:00

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