Facebook Sticks To Their Decision On Trump’s Account, Says They Will Not Lift Ban But Calls Indefinite Suspension ‘Not Appropriate’

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Facebook’s Oversight Board determined that Trump is still banned from Facebook and Instagram but stated that Facebook imposed “indeterminate and standard less penalty of indefinite suspension, according to Fox Business.

“The Board has upheld Facebook’s decision on January 7, 2021, to restrict then-President Donald Trump’s access to posting content on his Facebook page and Instagram account,” the board announced Wednesday morning.

The board called the ban “arbitrary” and stated that Facebook “violated its own rules.”

“Facebook cannot make up the rules as it goes, and anyone concerned about its power should be concerned about allowing this,” the board said in a statement. “Having clear rules that apply to all users and Facebook is essential for ensuring the company treats users fairly.”

“Facebook’s normal penalties include removing the violating content, imposing a time-bound period of suspension, or permanently disabling the page and account,” the board said Wednesday, insisting that Facebook “review this matter to determine and justify a proportionate response that is consistent with the rules that are applied to other users of its platform.”

The board selects and reviews cases that “are of critical importance to public discourse, and/or raise important questions about Facebook’s policies.”

The board’s panel is “diverse” and is made up of 5 randomly chosen members of the board.

Together these five randomly selected board members to determine whether or not content violates Facebook’s Community Standards.

Trump recently announced the launch of a new communication platform to share information with followers and supports.

“This is just a one-way communication.”

“This system allows Trump to communicate with his followers.”

Jason Miller said, “President Trump’s website is a great resource to find his latest statements and highlights from his first term in office, but this is not a new social media platform.”

“We’ll have additional information coming on that front in the very near future.”

Facebook blocked Trump “indefinitely” following the Jan. 6 riot.

Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg “believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”

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“This guidance applies to all campaign accounts and Pages, including Team Trump, other campaign messaging vehicles on our platforms, and former surrogates,” Eric Trump stated.

“Now … I just put out releases that everybody prints what I say,” Trump said.

“I think it’s actually much more elegant than Twitter, and it gets the word out just as well. Not everybody can do that, unfortunately.”

More from Fox Business:

The decision is then published on their website, and Facebook is required to implement decisions within seven days, and respond publicly to recommendations within 30 days.

The board’s decision comes after Trump, on Tuesday afternoon, rolled out a new communications platform, “From the desk of Donald J. Trump.”

The space allows Trump to post comments, images and videos, and allows followers to share the former president’s posts to Twitter and Facebook, though it does not have a feature letting users “reply” or engage with Trump’s posts.

Trump’s new platform surfaced Tuesday, after advisers had told Fox News that the former president planned to “move forward” to create a social media platform of his own after being banned from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat after the Capitol riot.

Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and YouTube announced they were permanently banning Trump after the riot.

Since then, Facebook has taken steps to limit Trump from appearing on the platform, even through other accounts.

Last month, Facebook removed a video of an interview with Trump conducted by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, saying any content “in the voice of Donald Trump” would be scrubbed from the social media platform.

A group of Trump officials was sent an email from a Facebook employee before the interview was posted, warning that any content posted on Facebook and Instagram “in the voice of President Trump is not currently allowed on our platforms (including new posts with President Trump speaking)” and warned that it “will be removed if posted, resulting in additional limitations on accounts that posted it.”

A source familiar confirmed the authenticity of the messages to Fox News.

Twitter wrote in a blog post in January that the ban was “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

For years, before and during his presidency, Trump used Twitter to communicate directly to the American people, bypassing the media.

But the former president told FOX Business last week that the press release statement that he has been putting out since the ban are getting his message out “in a more elegant way” than a tweet.