Facebook upholds Trump’s ban for two years

Facebook announced today that it would be upholding the suspension of Donald Trump’s accounts for two years effective from the date of the first suspension, January 7 2021.

This announcement was made by Nick Clegg, VP of Global Affairs for Facebook in a blog post.

“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.” he said.

On the 7th of January 2021, President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were blocked as a consequence of his support for the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday. Social media platforms Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, had initially suspended the US President Donald Trump out of his accounts for just 24 hours due to his incendiary comments concerning the US Capitol storming by supporting rioters to block Biden’s win.

In May 2021, Facebook’s independent oversight board upheld the company’s January decision to suspend the Facebook and Instagram accounts of former President Donald Trump though the board said, the indefinite time frame of the suspension “was not appropriate.”

Nick Clegg also stated that, “At the end of this period, we 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.”

“When the suspension is eventually lifted, 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.” he added

In response to the suspension, Trump slammed the decision and repeated false claims of voter fraud: “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!”

“Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!” Trump added.