Facebook’s “Supreme Court” upholds ban on Trump’s account

On Wednesday, Facebook’s semi-independent oversight board said suspending President Donald Trump’s account was justified but the company did it in an irresponsible way. Facebook banned Trump earlier this year, blaming his posts for inciting violence during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The company referred the decision to its oversight board, which agreed that two of Trump’s posts—one that said, “We love you. You’re very special,” and another that called the rioters “great patriots” and said, “remember this day forever”—violated Facebook’s content standards against supporting people engaged in violence. But the board said indefinitely banning the account then referring the case to the board was inappropriate: Facebook should have either shut off the account permanently or for a set amount of time.

What will happen next? The oversight board gave Facebook six months to choose a proportionate penalty and decide how it will address future violations if it chooses to restore Trump’s account. Meanwhile, the former president has started sharing Tweet-sized opinions and commentary on a new microblogging page of his website.

Dig deeper: Read Sharon Dierberger’s report in Muse on the makeup of Facebook’s oversight board.