Gbas Gbos everywhere!
LOL.....
Facebook announced Friday that it would maintain its suspension of former President Donald Trump's participation in the social media site for two years – until January 2023 – but said he could return if he stopped committing 'violations'.
Mark Zuckerberg handed the former president what he says was the company's 'highest penalty' after the Facebook Oversight Board criticized the indefinite ban handed down after the Capitol riot.
And the former president responded first with a blistering statement, then with some online mockery.
'Next time I’m in the White House there will be no more dinners, at his request, with Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. It will be all business!' Trump wrote in a statement from his 'Save America' PAC.
He blasted out his response by email, with Facebook and Twitter bans both in effect.
The company issued a detailed statement Friday spelling out the reason for its continuation of the ban – and acknowledging internal criticism that an 'open-ended' suspension that left the former president in limbo.
In May, Zuckerberg's so-called 'Supreme Court' upheld the ban, but threw the decision back to Facebook executives to decide on the length of the suspension.
The decision came after the company's Oversight Board announced in January that it had suspended Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts, but had failed to provide an end-date.
The new statement acknowledged permanent removal was an option 'if Mr. Trump commits further violations' of its policies in the future.'
But the company also noted its Oversight Board had 'criticized the open-ended nature of the suspension, stating that "it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose the indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension."'
Trump initially responded to ruling with an angry statement, where he once again called the election 'rigged' – the kind of statement that earned him a series of warnings from social media giants before the Nov. 3 elections.
'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 wrote.
Trump received 74 million votes in the national popular vote, compared to Biden's 81 million, and lost to Biden in the Electoral College, which determines the winner of the presidency.
The White House signaled approval for the move, while acknowledging it was the company's decision to make.
'It’s a decision for the company to make and any platform to make and clearly they’ve come out and made their decision,' said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki when asked about it.
'Every platform has a responsibility to crack down on disinformation, to crack down on false information, whether it’s about the election or even the vaccine,' she continued.
'We learned a lot from President Trump, of the former president, over the last couple of years, about his behavior and how he uses these platforms,' she said. 'Feels pretty unlikely that the zebra’s going to change his stripes over the next two years. We’ll see.'
Facebook's statement cited the 'gravity' of the conduct that got him bumped in the first place, after flagging his repeated claims of election fraud and other issues.
The statement also referenced 'acts of incitement' in reference to his comments around the time of the January 6th Capitol riot, when Congress met to certify the electoral votes.
WHAT A WAWULENCE!
ReplyDeleteWe miss him on social media though.....
ReplyDelete