(Menlo Park, Calif.) – The Facebook Oversight Board announced Wednesday that it has upheld former President Trump’s temporary suspension, but has pushed the decision for a permanent ban back to Facebook to be reconsidered within six months. The Board rendered its decision without accounting for Trump’s full history of making racist, violent, and untrue statements on Facebook. The following is a statement from David Brody, who leads the Digital Justice Initiative at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law:
“For the good of the nation, Facebook must immediately and permanently ban former President Trump. He used Facebook to endanger our democracy, empower hateful violence, and promote racial division. Continuing to drag this decision out only causes more harm.”
“In their decision today, the Facebook Oversight Board made many of the same errors that Facebook makes in its own enforcement decisions. It did not evaluate the full context of the case and it used legal technicalities to avoid answering hard questions. For example, it failed to address Trump’s repeated use of Facebook to inflame hate and racism, or his long history of spreading divisive lies and disinformation prior to the 2020 election. Over-reliance on formalist schools of legal analysis entrenches dominant power structures by turning a blind eye to the big picture.”
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice for all, particularly in the areas of voting rights, criminal justice, fair housing and community development, economic justice, educational opportunities, and hate crimes. For more information, please visit https://lawyerscommittee.org.
