Facebook suspended former President Donald J. Trump from social media platform for two years in response to its independent oversight board ruling, the company announced Friday.
Last month, the oversight board upheld Facebook’s suspension of the former president’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following his praise for the rioters committing violence during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6.
“We are today announcing new enforcement protocols to be applied in exceptional cases such as this, and we are confirming the time-bound penalty consistent with those protocols which we are applying to Mr. Trump’s accounts,” Facebook wrote 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,” the company wrote.
On Friday, Trump shot back at Facebook.
“Facebook’s ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!” Trump said in a statement.
At the end of the 2-year suspension, Facebook said it will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded.
“We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest. 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 re-evaluate until that risk has receded,” the social media company wrote.
When the suspension is eventually lifted, the company said there will a strict set of sanctions that will be triggered if Trump commits further violations, including permanent removal of his pages and accounts.
“In establishing the two-year sanction for severe violations, we considered the need for it to be long enough to allow a safe period of time after the acts of incitement, to be significant enough to be a deterrent to Mr. Trump and others from committing such severe violations in future, and to be proportionate to the gravity of the violation itself,” Facebook said of the decision.
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