Former President Donald Trump had his day in front of Facebook’s “Supreme Court” and found out Wednesday what a lot of people expected; he’s still banned from posting on the Facebook and Instagram social media platforms.
While it was anticipated that the Facebook Oversight Board’s ruling would be decisive and final, they instead included a passive aggressive caveat to their ruling, that essentially said Facebook violated their own rules by initially handing Trump an “arbitrary” indefinite ban.
So, to review, Trump is still banned from Facebook, but the Oversight Board said Facebook messed up, by imposing an “indeterminate and standard less pendant of indefinite suspension.”
Here’s part of the official statement from the board. “Facebook cannot make up the rules as it goes, and anyone concerned about its power should be concerned about allowing this. Having clear rules that apply to all users and Facebook is essential for ensuring the company treats users fairly.”
The board has given Facebook six months to review the “arbitrary” indefinite ban against Trump, so we might be in this same boat in November.
Mark Zuckerberg will be in the driver’s seat in regards to making the decision on Trump’s case within the next six months. During that time, Trump will not be welcome on Facebook and Instagram.
The ruling by the board was lengthy and detailed, over 11,000 words long. The sole role of the five member board is to make sure Facebook doesn’t have full autonomy over the site, but they effectively did nothing more than delay the ultimate final ruling, and they put it back in the hands of the CEO.
Here’s more from the Oversight Board’s ruling. “Given the seriousness of the violations and the ongoing risk of violence, Facebook was justified in suspending Mr. Trump’s accounts on January 6 and extending that suspension on January 7. However, it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose an ‘indefinite’ suspension.”
As of 10:00 A.M. Wednesday morning, there has not been a response from Trump.
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