Republicans in Congress told Facebook’s oversight board in a new letter that the suspension of former President Donald Trump by the social media company is an example of uneven standards of demotion.
Leading members of the House Republican Party, including Representatives Ken Buck (R-Colo.) And Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told the board that they see violent speech posted from all parts of the political spectrum on the platforms of social media, including Facebook, which aims to call for the murder of police officers from the far-left network Antifa and a senior Iranian official who promises violence against the United States.
“The debate on how to deal effectively with these and others is necessary and important,” the lawmakers wrote. “However, we remain concerned that disassembly regulations are not being applied fairly and neutrally.”
Republicans referred to a report compiled by a team led by former Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) On conservative concerns with Facebook, claiming that the report “found numerous issues that resulted in a clear political bias against conservative views. ». They also noted that Facebook limited a story about President Joe Biden’s son Hunter to not being shared shortly before the 2020 election, claiming it contained misinformation, although later reports confirmed many of the points made. That incident showed that Facebook “had a clear preference for the Biden-Harris campaign,” lawmakers said.
Leaked images of a Facebook meeting held after Biden took office showed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg praising some of the Democrat’s early executive orders.
“Cases in which conservative views have been censored, blocked, or diminished damage the free exchange of ideas and irreparably damage conservative Americans’ faith in the fundamental justice of supposedly neutral actors like Facebook,” the lawmakers wrote. “To effectively enforce content moderation rules in the public domain, Facebook must act impartially or risk delegitimizing its efforts to prevent violence and hate.”
Facebook suspended Trump in early January while he was still in office. The company at the time said the suspension would last indefinitely.
The company subsequently referred the decision to the supervisory board, an independent entity. Facebook has agreed to abide by the decisions of the board.
In its first set of rulings, the board reversed four Facebook shares and upheld one.
The oversight board, which includes attorneys, current and former journalists, rights advocates and academics, announced in late January that it would accept comments on Trump’s suspension.
In its announcement, the board said that Facebook raised two questions in relation to the case: “Given Facebook’s values, specifically its commitment to ‘Voice’ and ‘Security’, did you decide correctly on January 7, 2021 ban advertising for Donald J. Trump? access to post content on Facebook and Instagram for an indefinite period of time? Facebook also requested the observations or recommendations of the Board on suspensions when the user is a political leader ”.
The board plans to overturn or maintain Facebook’s suspension by April.
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