The semi-independent body called the “Oversight Board”, also known as “Facebook Supreme Court” has upheld the social media giant’s ban of Donald Trump. The former President has been banned since the January 6th incident due to “inciting riots” and also for continuing to promote his controversial views about the 2020 election. There is one caveat here. The Oversight Board says Facebook cannot simply keep Trump in purgatory. There must be a set-date suspension, a permanent ban, or simply a removal of the offending content. Facebook has six months to make a definitive decision one way or the other.
Facebook has long been accused of unfair treatment of conservative voices on their platform. Channels much smaller and less important on the world stage have been banned for next to nothing. Some pages have been banned because their website has content that Facebook does not agree with. Sometimes even the comments of other people on the page contribute to a ban. Facebook is considered the worst platform of all when it comes to censorship. So the banning of Trump is no real surprise. But it does highlight a large amount of hypocrisy.
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams essentially went on a press tour complaining about her loss. She alluded to, and sometimes outright said, that the election was “stolen” from her. Abrams has not been banned from any social media platform. Her Facebook page is up and running. There hasn’t even been any talk of banning her. So why is Trump’s page banned? The answer to that question points to another piece of hypocrisy. Maybe Facebook does not want Trump to succeed in the 2024 if he were to run again. Wouldn’t that be considered election interference? The very thing that social media giants like Facebook purported themselves to be fighting against? Of course.
SOURCES:
Facebook ‘Supreme Court’ Packed with Anti-Trump, Progressive Figures
Trump Ban From Facebook Upheld by Oversight Board – The New York Times
Announcing the First Members of the Oversight Board | Oversight Board
