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Facebook’s oversight committee approves of Trump’s suspension

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Donald Trump will remain blocked on Facebook after a decision by the company’s independent oversight committee has sparked a strong reaction from Republicans.

The decision will continue to remove the vital speaker from the former president. The jury decided that Facebook should review within six months whether or not the freeze should last forever, and criticized the company for its ad hoc and opaque decision-making process.

Trump attacked big technologies. “They have deprived the President of the United States of Freedom of the Left because the Crazy Radical Left is afraid of the truth,” he said, adding, “.

Facebook finally suspended Trump’s account four months ago, fearing it could spark more violence and unrest after a storm in the Capitol on Jan. 6 at the Capitol.

In January, Facebook asked its oversight committee, the first Supreme Court-style body to be appointed in 2020. review the ban, as well as providing instructions on how the platform should handle content that violates the rules of world leaders.

The board said it reaffirmed its decision to limit the former president’s account because it “created a clear and immediate risk of harm” on the basis of an untold basis of electoral fraud and ongoing calls for action.

However, the commission said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Trump ban reflects the flaws in the “unlimited” content moderation decision-making process.

“By applying a vague and non-standard sanction and resolving this case to the management, Facebook wants to avoid its responsibilities,” he said.

It’s unclear whether Trump, once an obsessive social media user, could regain access to more than 35m followers on Facebook and more than 24m on Instagram. He has not ruled out running again for the White House in 2024.

In a blog post, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communications, said the company believed the decision to suspend Trump was “necessary and correct”.

“We are pleased that the council has acknowledged that the unprecedented situation was justified by the exceptional measure we took,” Clegg said.

The decision of the committee was upheld by some Republicans. “Facebook has a greater interest in acting as a Super PAC democrat than a platform for freedom of expression and open discussion. If they ban President Trump, all conservative voices could be next, “Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy wrote on Twitter. Jim Jordan, a Republican representative from Ohio, he said: “Break”.

Democrats and civil rights groups called on Facebook to ban the former president once and for all and reiterated calls for tougher regulations.

Frank Pallone, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said: “Ea [Trump is] on the platform or not, Facebook and other social media platforms with the same business model will find ways to highlight divisive content to get advertising revenue. ”

The verdict is the largest test ever conducted by Facebook’s 20-member oversight committee, made up of academics, civil rights groups and experts from across the political spectrum.

The Commission has recommended a number of networks that should be considered on social networks but not met, including the creation of a group to manage the moderation of the political discourse of influential users.

Facebook’s Twitter rival finally banned Trump in January. Google’s Youtube has suspended former president from video platform but CEO Susan Wojcicki says it will lift the frost once “the risk of violence is reduced”.

Trump has kept a relatively low profile since he left the White House in late January and regained the post of Joe Biden. He has made few public appearances and participated in a few interviews, most notably with Fox News.

The election fraud that led to his bans has continued to repeat some unproven claims.

Facebook oversight committee: who they are and what they do

What is a supervisory board?

A monitoring board was set up to “analyze a highly selected number of flagships” to analyze content moderation decisions and determine whether these were “made in accordance with the values ​​and policies stated on Facebook”. The company is funded by a $ 130 million bond that was created and launched last year.

Users can go to the board to remove content or request to review content that is allowed to be wrong on the platform. Facebook can also recommend cases – that’s what happened during the Trump suspension.

The commission can also offer broad policy recommendations to Facebook, even if the social media company is not forced to follow them.

Who are they?

The council is made up of 20 academics elected by Facebook but acting independently, human rights and free speech experts and journalists. Members include former editor of the Guardian newspaper Alan Rusbridger, Nobel laureate Tawakkol Karman and former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

The anonymous sub-selection of board members aims to make an initial decision on a case, with which the majority of the committee must agree.

What did they decide on Wednesday?

The commission reaffirmed its decision to limit Trump’s account.

He has also been asked to advise on how to deal with the suspension of world leaders at a time when characters such as Iranian ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte are facing a study on the use of social media.

The statutes of the commission allow a 90-day window to reach the conclusion of a case and an additional week for Facebook to take action. The decision on the Trump case was delayed after management received about 9,000 responses to the call for comments. Trump also submitted a “user statement” to management, specifying that he believed the decision should be overturned.



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