Facebook ordered to review Trump’s ban

Facebook board upheld the decision by the tech giant to suspend the former US President Donald Trump’s account but also passed a verdict that any move to stay the ‘‘indefinite’’ suspension would be harsh and unfair.

The board said that while the tech giant acted in good faith to censure Mr Trump’s account, its decision to slap an indefinite suspension on the victim was infringing on its policies.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Facebook Oversight Board Co-Chair and the former Danish Prime Minister was quoted saying: “We are telling them very, very clearly that they did the right thing when they removed Trump from their platforms. But they can’t just invent rules as they go along.”

Board speaks

The oversight board was quoted by Reuters saying, “The Board has upheld Facebook’s decision on Jan. 7 to suspend then-President Trump from Facebook and Instagram. Trump’s posts during the Capitol riot severely violated Facebook’s rules and encouraged and legitimized violence.”

“The Board also found Facebook violated its own rules by imposing a suspension that was ‘indefinite.’ This penalty is not described in Facebook’s content policies. It has no clear criteria and gives Facebook total discretion on when to impose or lift it.”

Trump protested the January the move by Twitter and Facebook to lock him out of the social media platforms terming it an ‘embarrassment’ on the US which upholds the democratic principles in high regard.

Trump was blacklisted by the social media companies for inciting his supporters to violence and charging them to attack the Congress and stop the representatives from endorsing Joe Biden’s presidential win ahead of the January 20, 2021, swearing-in.

He has been communicating through press releases even as he keeps promising to launch his own social media platform.