Facebook suspends former US President Donald Trump’s account for 2 years

By Team Newsable | First Published Jun 5, 2021, 11:25 AM IST

The social media giant will reinstate him only if “the risk to public safety has receded,” according to a blog post on the company’s website.

Social media behemoth Facebook on Friday said the account of former US President Donald Trump will remain suspended for two years, and post that period it will re-assess the ban.

Facebook, along with other major media platforms Twitter and YouTube, had suspended Trump's accounts after the Capitol Hill riots, alleging that the Republican leader's rhetoric had instigated the attack.

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Trump on Friday, reacted sharply to Facebook’s suspension of his account from the social media platform until January 2023, calling it an “insult” and an effort to “censor and silence” him.

Facebook’s new policy refers specifically to the behaviour of public figures during periods of heightened violence or unrest, according to the blog post. Facebook says it will now initiate a series of time-bound suspensions for violators, starting with a one-month suspension, and look to experts to help re-evaluate the situation at the end of each period.

The announcement, part of a set of responses to the Facebook Oversight Board’s recommendations in May regarding its suspension of the former president, is likely to have major implications for how the platform treats controversial public figures going forward.

The board stated that “it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standard less penalty of indefinite suspension.”

Announcing new enforcement protocols to be applied in exceptional cases such as this, Facebook confirmed the time-bound penalty would be consistent with those protocols which they are now applying to Trump's account.

"Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr Trump's suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year,” Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs, Facebook said in a blog post on Friday.

On January 6, thousands of supporters of outgoing President Trump had stormed the Capitol building and clashed with police, resulting in four deaths, and interrupted a constitutional process by the Congress to affirm the victory of Joe Biden in the November 3 election.

The company’s announcement Friday is an attempt to clarify Trump’s penalty and make the procedures of the powerful social network, which is used by 3.45 billion people globally on a monthly basis, appear less arbitrary and opaque to the public. It is also the first major test of how a non-government watchdog might act as a check on Facebook’s power.

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