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Facebook’s Oversight Board today upheld the social network’s ban on former president Trump for encouraging violence following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a decision that holds major implications for how the speech of political leaders should be policed online.

But the 20-member Oversight Board, which is largely independent and funded by the social network, also left open the door for Trump’s return.

The expert panel took issue with Facebook’s “indefinite” suspension of Trump, calling it “vague and uncertain.”

It sent the decision back to Facebook and said it had six months to clarify Trump’s punishment and come up with a response that fits its known rules.

In the ruling, the board agreed that Trump’s comments on the day of the insurrection “created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible.”

The board pointed to the former president calling the mob members “patriots,” “special,” and telling them to “remember this day forever.”

The board recommended that Facebook publish a report explaining its own role in fomenting the Jan. 6 attack.

The ruling opens a new chapter in the global debate over the power of social media giants.

The board’s decision provoked swift responses from political leaders, advocates, and experts around the world.

Many said that the decision merely kicked the can back to the social network and did not provide clear guidance for the treatment of boundary-pushing politicians.

“The practical effect of this decision will be that Facebook — and possibly other platforms that might have been watching the Oversight Board for unofficial guidance — will have to continue to grapple themselves with the problem of what to do about political leaders who abuse social media to spread lies and incite violence,” wrote Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, in a statement.

Facebook currently exempts political figures from some hate speech rules on the grounds that those comments are newsworthy.

The Board took issue with that exemption, noting that “it is not always useful to draw a firm distinction between political leaders and other influential users,” and that such users have greater power than others to cause harm.

In its response to the decision, Facebook emphasized that Trump would remain off the social network for the time being, following the board’s order.

“We will now consider the board’s decision and determine an action that is clear and proportionate,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs and communication said in a blog post Wednesday. “In the meantime, Mr. Trump’s accounts remain suspended.”

Trump said in a statement that Facebook, Twitter and Google embarrassed the United States.

Critics have argued that Facebook should have banned Trump at different points throughout his presidency, saying that his inflammatory language and frequent promotion of misinformation — about the coronavirus in particular — constituted an abuse of his office and of Facebook’s own community standards.

But chief executive Mark Zuckerberg felt strongly that politicians should be given wide latitude because their speech was in the public interest.

The last straw came on Jan. 6, when Trump’s comments on Twitter appeared to encourage the Capitol insurrection, Zuckerberg said, and the company said it would suspend him indefinitely.

Facebook referred its decision about Trump to the Oversight Board shortly afterward.

The board, which is less than a year old and had yet to decide a case at the time, was first conceived by Zuckerberg in 2018 as a way to outsource the thorniest content moderation decisions without having the government intervene.

Over the past few months, members spanning time zones from Taiwan to San Francisco connected on videoconference calls to pore over more than 9,000 public comments on the matter, including from Trump himself, according to the board.

In its decision, the board faulted Facebook for making “arbitrary” decisions on the fly, and said that the company had no published criteria for suspending a user indefinitely.

Facebook’s normal penalties are removing a comment, a time-limited suspension or disabling the user’s account permanently, the board said.

“The Board has upheld Facebook’s decision on January 7, 2021, to restrict then-President Donald Trump’s access to posting content on his Facebook page and Instagram account,” the board wrote. “However, it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose an ‘indefinite’ suspension. It is not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored.”

Allies of the defeated former president believe reinstatement on both Facebook and Twitter are critical to another Trump run for president in 2024.

 

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