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FACEBOOK’S oversight board rebuked the social media giant on Wednesday while upholding its ban on former US president Donald Trump.
Facebook, like Twitter, banned the outgoing president on the grounds that he was inciting violence when he encouraged supporters to storm the Capitol on January 5-6 in a bid to stop the inauguration of his elected successor Joe Biden.
But the company’s oversight board said that Facebook had applied a “vague, standardless penalty and [referred] this case to the board to resolve” in order “to avoid its responsibilities.” It told the corporation that it ought to specify how long Mr Trump was banned for as well.
Critic Rashad Robinson, president of the Colour of Change NGO, said the focus on Mr Trump allowed Facebook to avoid tougher questions about its algorithms and how they can amplify extremist views.
Others, including International Federation of Journalists secretary-general Anthony Bellanger, have complained that arguing over whether the former president should be banned or not sidelines the debate over Facebook’s huge power to censor opinions in the public sphere.
