Former President Donald Trump recently lashed out at Facebook after its announcement that they would suspend his account for at least two years as it enforces “new protocols to be applied in exceptional cases.” They said that his account would remain suspended until January 7, 2023, and that it will be reactivated if the risk to public safety has receded. If this doesn’t show how scared the radical left is of Trump, I don’t know what will.
Nick Clegg, Facebook’s Vice President of Global Affairs, wrote in a blog post that the board is “grateful” they suspended Trump, but that they did not have the enforcement protocols at the time to respond to such an unusual set of events. He writes that they will instill a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions if Trump commits further violations in the future, up to and including the permanent removal of his pages and accounts.
“We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly, and other markers of civil unrest. If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded,” Clegg wrote.
Facebook also announced that they will be ending policies that exempt politicians from content moderation rules and provide more information about “newsworthiness allowance,” where platforms allow public interest content even if it violates Facebook’s rules.
The announcement came shortly after Trump shut down his blog page, “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” as a precursor to joining another social media platform.
“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. They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!” Trump said.
Twitter has also permanently banned the former president’s Twitter account where he was able to directly communicate with the American public.
While some argue that it’s a private company that can ban whoever they want, others have argued that a social media company doesn’t have the authority to silence a world leader. If anything, this just shows how political the platform is.
Facebook’s Oversight Board, the DNC, and Twitter are all afraid of the power Trump has, especially in the upcoming 2022 elections. Sooner or later, Trump will launch his own platform and straighten out this mess anyway.
