Facebook Oversight Board upholds Trump ban
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows calls out double standard after the Facebook Oversight Board upheld the social media platform's ban on former President Trump.
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday slammed the Facebook Oversight Board's decision to uphold his ban from Facebook and Instagram as a "total disgrace," saying Big Tech companies "must pay a political price."
The board on Wednesday upheld Trump's ban from Facebook and Instagram but said it was "not appropriate" for Facebook to impose the "indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension."
FACEBOOK OVERSIGHT BOARD UPHOLDS TRUMP BAN, BUT CALLS INDEFINITE SUSPENSION ‘NOT APPROPRIATE’
The board gave Facebook six months to review the "arbitrary" indefinite ban, saying in a tweet that the company "violated its own rules."
"What Facebook, Twitter, and Google have done is a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our Country," Trump said in a statement after the decision, which he also posted to his new communications platform, "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump." "Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth, but the truth will come out anyway, bigger and stronger than ever before."
"The People of our Country will not stand for it!" Trump continued. "These corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process."
Trump's new platform allows him to post comments, images and videos, and allows followers to share the former president's posts to Twitter and Facebook, though it does not have a feature letting users reply or engage with Trump’s posts.
"In a time of silence and lies, a beacon of freedom arises. A place to speak freely and safely," a video announcing the new platform said. "Straight from the desk of Donald J. Trump."
The technology is powered by Campaign Nucleus — the "digital ecosystem made for efficiently managing political campaigns and organizations," created by Trump's former campaign manager Brad Parscale.
"This is just a one-way communication," one source familiar with the space told Fox News. "This system allows Trump to communicate with his followers."
Trump's new platform surfaced Tuesday after advisers had told Fox News the former president planned to "move forward" to create a social media platform of his own after being banned from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat after the Capitol riot.
"President Trump's website is a great resource to find his latest statements and highlights from his first term in office, but this is not a new social media platform," Trump senior adviser Jason Miller told Fox News. "We’ll have additional information coming on that front in the very near future."
TRUMP LAUNCHES NEW COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM MONTHS AFTER FACEBOOK, TWITTER BAN
Trump, during an interview on the Daily Wire Tuesday night, said he’ll "be doing a platform at some point" but called his new communications platform "more elegant than Twitter."
"I’m going a little bit different category, because I put out a press release and it gets massive coverage," he said during the interview. "I put out press releases, you know, a few a day, and I can make them actually more than the 220 or 240 or whatever it is characters."
Meanwhile, Facebook, responding to the board's decision Wednesday, said it believes its move to ban Trump in January was "necessary and rigtht" and it is "pleased the board has recognized that the unprecedented circumstances justified the exceptional measure we took."
Facebook said it will "now consider the board's decision and determine an action that is clear and proportionate."
"In the meantime, Mr. Trump's accounts remain suspended," Facebook said, adding that it is reviewing the board's recommendations on policies surrounding political figures.
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