Facebook’s Oversight Board will announce on Wednesday the fate of Donald Trump’s account, which the platform banned following the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
The oversight board will announce a decision around 9 AM ET.
Trump was suspended indefinitely following the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol. He was impeached for a second time for inciting the unrest, but acquitted by the Senate. Other social media platforms followed in restricting Trump’s accounts, and he was banned outright from Twitter.
The Oversight Board was set up to handle appeals of company decisions. Facebook referred its decision to the board on Jan. 21, but kept Trump’s suspension in place in the meantime.
“We believe our decision was necessary and right,” wrote Facebook’s Nick Clegg. “Given its significance, we think it is important for the board to review it and reach an independent judgment on whether it should be upheld.”
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The Oversight Board was set up by the company to act as a neutral third party on content moderation decisions. It includes experts on technology, legal affairs, free speech, journalism and digital rights, many from academia and foundation. One recent addition was Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of PEN America. The board appoints a smaller panel to review cases. The decision is binding, meaning that Facebook would have to reinstate Trump’s account if its January decision is reverse.
In the wake of the attack on the Capitol, Facebook initially suspended Trump, but later made the ban indefinite. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the then-president had used the platform to “incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.”
