Facebook found that his posts on January 6 stoked violence and posed a risk to public safety.
Facebook is banning former President Trump from its platform for at least two years, after finding that his posts on January 6 stoked violence and posed a risk to public safety. And, as part of a new enforcement policy for public figures, the social media giant isn’t guaranteeing that Mr. Trump will be allowed to return at the end of the ban. “At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post. “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,” he added. Clegg said Facebook will consult with experts and consider external factors, including instances of violence and other markers of civil unrest to determine if the risk to public safety has receded. When the suspension is eventually lifted, Facebook said there will be a set of rapidly escalating sanctions if Mr. Trump commits further violations, including permanent removal of his pages and accounts. Mr. Trump called Facebook’s ruling “an insult” to his supporters. “They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing,” he responded in a brief statement. The two-year ban is considered to have begun on January 7, when Mr. Trump was initially suspended from Facebook, and it will keep him off the platform through the 2022 midterm elections. Facebook’s new enforcement policy, which specifically applies to public figures during times of civil unrest and violence, incorporates a series of time-bound suspensions for policy violators. The two-year suspension is the harshest penalty available under Facebook’s new protocols. The policy changes come as part of a set of responses to the Facebook Oversight Board’s recommendations in May regarding its suspension of Mr.
