Photo via the White House
June 4, 2021, 11:31 am
Facebook Inc. has extended Donald Trump’s suspension on both Facebook and Instagram to a total of two years, reaching until at least January 7, 2023, following an oversight board decision saying that the company could not continue their indefinite suspension and must either decide on an end date or make the ban permanent. Two years is apparently the maximum length of a suspension on these platforms, though some Trump critics are unhappy that the ban would lift in time for him to campaign for the 2024 election.
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Despite dodging a permanent ban, Trump and his supporters are still upset at the extension, hurling the usual accusations of censorship and issuing falsehoods about how many people voted for him. Trump himself quickly issued a statement from his “Save America” PAC website.
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“Facebook’s ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election,” he wrote. “They shouldn’t be allowed to get away w/ this censoring & silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!”
Soon after posting this statement, Trump followed up with another that was pure pettiness and is also either a confirmation that he plans to run again or really does expect to be reinstated in August. Either way, no free McDonald’s for Mark Zuckerberg at the White House.
“Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!”
At the same time, Facebook has ended a policy allowing politicians to violate their rules as long as whatever horrible thing they posted was deemed “newsworthy” after many pointed out that Trump’s incitement of the January 6 insurrection was definitely a newsworthy event. This will hopefully mean that even when the former president returns to Facebook and Instagram, he will be held accountable for his posts and probably end up banned or at least suspended again as soon as he gets his phone away from his handlers.
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In the full statement from the company on the suspension, Facebook emphasized that the overall situation in the U.S. will be analyzed before they pull the trigger on reinstating his accounts, and that they will be closely monitored and additional action will be taken against him if he violates the rules again.
“When the suspension is eventually 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 an including permanent removal of his pages and accounts.” the statement reads.
The decision by Facebook on Trump’s suspension has successfully made everybody angry, with Republicans furious at this continuation of consequences for severely violating the website’s terms of service and others annoyed that he will get to return to the platforms at all. Trump’s supporters are particularly outraged, railing against Zuckerberg and generally acting like the private company is stealing all of their freedoms.
Zuckerberg promoted COVID lockdowns.
Zuckerberg bribed election officials with unprecedented infusions of cash.
Zuckerberg deplatformed a US president who received over 75 million votes.
Why do we allow an individual who no one voted for to have this much unbridled power?
— Jason D. Meister
(@jason_meister) June 4, 2021
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*First Published: June 4, 2021, 11:31 am
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