(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- The Facebook Oversight Board won’t make a decision on the ban of former President Donald Trump just yet.
The oversight board, which is an independent group appointed to oversee censorship on both Facebook and Instagram, was expected to issue a decision by April 21. For now, though, the group said it needs more time to review the public responses it received in the case.
In January, Facebook and Instagram banned Trump from their platforms. They said it was due to his alleged incitement of violence that led to the attacks on the U.S. Capitol building on January 6.
On Twitter, the Oversight Board wrote:
“The Board will announce its decision on the case concerning former US President Trump’s indefinite suspension from Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks. We extended the public comments deadline for this case, receiving 9,000+ responses.”
So far, the group has ruled on nine cases, but this one will be the biggest and most publicized decision yet.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, formed the committee to rule on controversial or difficult moderation decisions that the social media platform issues. He said the group would operate independently, so that there wouldn’t be any favoritism or political slants shown. Zuckerberg has often called the group “Facebook’s Supreme Court.”
The problem, of course, is that many of the costs for the group, including the wages for the people serving on it, are paid for by Facebook. So, it’s hard to say they’re completely independent when they are reliant on the big tech company for its money.
When Facebook banned the former president, they didn’t just ban him from owning or running an account. They also banned the “voice of Trump.”
This expansion of the ban came when Laura Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law who is a contributor to Fox News, posted a video of an interview she conducted with Donald Trump. That post was banned.
Trump was permanently banned by Twitter back in January. That social media platform said he would not have a chance to return ever. Even if Trump were to win election to the White House in 2024, for example, he would not be allowed to rejoin the platform, company officials have said.
Trump is also banned from YouTube, but that’s only a temporary suspension. Susan Wojcicki, who is the chief executive at YouTube, said the ban may be lifted if the threat of “real-world violence” decreases.
Facebook was one of the main ways in which Trump communicated to his supporters, and vice versa. Pages on the platform that were created by Trump, his campaign or his supporters were often the highest-performing pages on the entire site.
Without that channel at his disposal, as well as Twitter and others, Trump has had to rely on media interviews and press releases to speak to his supporters.
This is one reason why he has apparently considered starting his own social media channel, so he and his supporters could share their thoughts freely without fear of being silenced by the liberal left.
