The company has concluded that the then president incited violence in connection with the storm on January 6, the day when Joe Biden’s election victory was to be approved in Congress.
“Given the very serious circumstances that led to the exclusion of Trump, we believe that his actions constituted a gross violation of our rules that dictate the most severe possible punishment under the new guidelines,” writes Facebook’s Vice President for International Affairs, Nick Clegg, in a bloggpost Friday.
New evaluation
It is also not a given that Trump can return to Facebook in two years.
– At the end of this period, we will consult with experts to assess whether the risk to social security is over. We will consider external factors, including incidents of violence, restrictions on peaceful assemblies and other signs of public unrest, writes Clegg.
In May, a control body of the company upheld the expulsion of the president, which took place shortly after the congressional storm. The so-called Oversight Board has been appointed and financed by the company, but will function as an independent entity.
But the control body also criticized Facebook’s decision and pointed out that exclusion indefinitely “without clear criteria” is not a reaction that holds water. Friday’s decision from the Facebook management is to count as an answer to this.
Practice change
The news comes at the same time as a confirmation that Facebook is also in the process of winding up a controversial practice that the company’s manager Mark Zuckerberg has previously taken the lead in. It involves special rules for politicians on the platform.
Hate speech, misinformation and other content that would otherwise be removed have been accepted with reference to the fact that this is content with news value.
The internet giant stated on Friday that the company would still use the argument about news value to leave certain posts from politicians, even if they were to break the rules that apply to others. However, Facebook says that they no longer “will treat material posted by politicians in any other way than material posted by others”.
The company says they will report on cases where this exception rule is used.
Insult to the electorate
On Friday, Donald Trump called Facebook’s decision an insult to those who had voted for him, while at the same time repeating the claim that he was the real winner of the election – claims that have been refuted through dozens of lawsuits in the wake of last year’s presidential election in the United States.
– They should not be allowed to get away with this censorship and gag, and in the end we will win. “Our country can no longer cope with this abuse,” Trump said in a statement.
– Serious breach
The company’s management and the Facebook-appointed control committee have stated that two of Trump’s Facebook messages from January 6 entailed gross violations of the content rules for Facebook and Instagram.
– We love you. You are very special, he wrote to the violent protesters in the first message. In the second, he referred to them as “great patriots” and asked them to “remember this day forever.”
This violated Facebook’s rules against praising or supporting violence, the committee stated, and pointed in particular to Facebook’s rules against “dangerous individuals and organizations”. These rules exclude anyone who declares a violent agenda and prohibits messages that express support or praise such individuals or groups.
Snur
Facebook introduced a general exception for what was described as statements with news value in 2016. The practice attracted special attention in 2019, when Nick Clegg stated that statements from politicians should be treated as newsworthy content that should generally be seen and heard.
“If someone makes a statement or shares a post that violates our standards, we will still allow it on our platform if we believe that the public interest in seeing it outweighs the risk of harm,” he wrote in a blog post.
Five people lost their lives when protesters stormed and entered the convention building in the US capital. More than 300 people have so far been charged in connection with the riots.
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