Following the invasion of the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, the account of the former US president was indefinitely banned from Facebook. On Friday evening, Facebook announced that it will be able to return to the platform, as well as to Instagram, on January 7, 2023.
Earlier this year, Facebook proceeded to block Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts for 24 hours. The next day, Facebook was delighted by opting for a blockade indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks, until the peaceful transition of power is completed, according to the words of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The latter then explained:
The shocking events of the past 24 hours make it clear that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time to undermine the peaceful and legal transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.
His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters on Capitol Hill rightly bothered people in the United States and around the world. We suppressed these statements yesterday because we felt that their effect – and probably their intention – would be to provoke further violence.
The Oversight Board (an independent group funded by Facebook to review its most difficult content decisions) upheld the sanction, saying the unprecedented circumstances warranted the exceptional measure taken. However, he made it clear that it could not be undefined. The Oversight Board criticized the unlimited nature of the suspension, saying it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indefinite sentence with no standard of indefinite suspension, recalling that within six months of this decision, Facebook must reconsider the sanction. arbitrariness he inflicted on January 7 and decide on the appropriate sanction.
The case was then reviewed by Facebook which it was asked to review the decision and respond in a clear and proportionate manner. In the crowd, the Oversight Board made a number of recommendations on how to improve policies and processes.
Facebook has delivered its verdict
Today we are announcing new enforcement protocols to be applied in exceptional cases like this, and we are confirming the time limit sanction in accordance with those protocols that we are applying to Mr. Trump’s accounts. Given the gravity of the circumstances which led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions were a serious violation of our rules which deserve the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We suspend his accounts for two years, starting from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 of this year.
At the end of this period, we will call on experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has diminished. We will assess external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assemblies, 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 period of time and continue to reassess until that risk disappears.
When the suspension is finally lifted, there will be a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in the future, up to and including the permanent removal from his pages and accounts.
In establishing the two-year penalty for serious violations, we felt that it should be long enough to allow a period of safety after acts of incitement, significant enough to deter Mr. Trump and others from committing such acts. acts. serious violations in the future and commensurate with the severity of the violation itself.
We are grateful that the Supervisory Board recognized that our initial decision to suspend Mr. Trump was just and necessary, in the exceptional circumstances of the time. We recognize that we did not have adequate application protocols in place to respond to such unusual events. Now that we have them, we hope that they will only be applicable in the rarest of circumstances.
We know that any sanction that we apply or choose not to apply will be controversial. Many people think it was inappropriate for a private company like Facebook to suspend an exiting president from its platform, and many others believe Mr. Trump should have been immediately banned to life. We know that today’s decision will be criticized by many people on both sides of the political divide, but our job is to make a decision in the most proportionate, fair and transparent way possible, in accordance with the instructions we have. gave the Supervisory Board.
Of course, this penalty only applies to our services Mr. Trump is and will remain free to express himself publicly by other means. Our approach reflects how we try to balance the values of freedom of expression and security on our services, for all users, as enshrined in our community standards. Other social media companies have taken different approaches – either by permanently banning Mr. Trump from their services, or by confirming that he will be free to resume use of their services when conditions permit.
In the crowd, Facebook pledged to be more transparent about the decisions it makes and their impact on its users. Also, in addition to its updated application protocols, the social media number one has also published its warning system so people know what action our systems will take if they violate our policies. And earlier this year, Facebook launched a feature called * Account Status *, so people can see when content was removed, why, and what the penalty was.
In response to a recommendation from the Supervisory Board, Facebook also provides more information in its Transparency Center on its media allocation and how it applies it: public to remain on our platform, even though they might otherwise violate our community standards. We may also apply sanctions, such as downgrades, when it is in the public interest to do so. However, in making those decisions, we will remove content if the risk of harm outweighs the public interest.
Source : Facebook
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