Facebook’s Oversight Board co-chair says Donald Trump’s rhetoric and social media posts ‘egged on’ rioters during the Capitol attack on January 6.
‘On January 6, President Trump issued those statements as a mob was rampaging through the Capitol, as members of Congress were cowering in fear, as the rioters were threatening Vice President Pence’s life,’ oversight panel co-chair Michael McConnell told ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Chris Wallace.
‘And at that time, he issued these statements which were just egging on — with perfunctory asking for peace, but mostly he was just egging them on — to continue,’ he added.
McConnell says it’s clear the posts were ‘in plain violation of Facebook’s rules against praising dangerous individuals and organizations at a time of violence.’
Facebook’s independent review board decided Wednesday to extend the ban on Trump’s accounts for another six months while CEO Mark Zuckerberg gets his ‘house in order.’
The panel will not issue a permanent decision on Trump’s account, instead claiming that will be up to Facebook when the six months is up and they have fixed issues related to their content moderation processes.
‘Mr. Trump is subject to the same rules on Facebook as everyone else,’ he asserted.
‘He put himself in this bed and he can sleep in it,’ McConnell said, adding Trump ‘bears responsibility for his own situation.’
Trump was banned from Facebook and Instagram – and most other social media sites like Twitter and YouTube – after the January 6 attack for which Democrats claim the former president was responsible for inciting.
The events, and Trump’s actions leading up to them, ultimately led to the second impeachment trial against him, which like the first did not result in conviction.
McConnell said the board found in its review that Facebook is justified in suspending Trump’s account, but was not justified in taking the former president’s statements down indefinitely.
‘They did not provide any reasons for that, that is not a provision in their rules, that was wrong,’ he said.
Conservatives insist they are unfairly targeted, censored and banned online by social media sites with left-leaning values and CEOs.
On Wednesday, the board released its decision to uphold the ban on Trump’s account for the next six months, in which time it will be reevaluated by Zuckerberg’s team.
McConnell said Wednesday that Facebook’s content moderators will ultimately have to decide whether to restore Trump’s account, permanently restrict it or give a set amount of time for a suspension.
Keeping him in limbo or relying on the panel to make a decision is not an option McConnell laid out.
‘Facebook must make its decision and be held accountable for what it decides,’ the oversight panel co-chair said.
McConnell, 65, is a constitutional law scholar who was a Republican-appointed judge for the Tenth Circuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Since ending his tenure with the court in 2009, he has been a professor and Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School.