Facebook has announced that former US president, Donald Trump’s accounts on the social giant’s platforms will be suspended for two years.
His account would be restored in 2023 “if conditions permit.”
The independent Facebook Oversight Board made the decision to uphold the company’s suspension of the ex-U.S. president after Trump praised rioters who engaged in violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Recall that Facebook temporarily froze Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts on Jan. 7 with CEO Mark Zuckerberg citing the risk of ongoing violence if the ex-president were allowed to remain on the services.
Meanwhile, Twitter banned Trump permanently on Jan. 8 for the same reasons, and other internet companies have taken similar actions to deplatform him.
According to Facebook’s VP of global affairs, Nick Clegg, on Friday, “Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year.”
Once the two-year period is up, in January 2023, “we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded” in deciding whether to reinstate Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, Clegg continued. “If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to reevaluate until that risk has receded,” he wrote.
Clegg added, “there will be a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in future, up to and including permanent removal of his pages and accounts.”
“We know that any penalty we apply — or choose not to apply — will be controversial,” Facebook’s Clegg wrote. “[B]ut our job is to make a decision in as proportionate, fair and transparent a way as possible, in keeping with the instruction given to us by the Oversight Board.”
