Former US President Donald Trump said the actions of Facebook, Twitter and Google are a "total disgrace" and the tech companies should pay a political price.
"What Facebook, Twitter, and Google have done is a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our Country," Trump said in a statement accusing the companies of violating his free speech rights. "These corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process."
However, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt said, "We did not need four months and an unaccountable, secretive process to tell us what we already knew: Donald Trump should be immediately and permanently banned from Facebook."Greenblatt criticized the decision's lack of finality, saying that "Now it appears the Oversight Board is kicking the decision back to Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, asking them to decide within six months whether to lift the suspension or permanently ban him.He continued, saying that "Six months will not change the fact that for years Donald Trump exploited the platform to spread hate, incite violence and circulate disinformation in clear violation of Facebook’s community guidelines.""Only after Trump played a role in inciting the violent terror attack on the US Capitol on January 6 did Facebook address his violations, and even then, Facebook passed the decision off to the Oversight Board to deflect responsibility," Greenblatt said.This decision underscores that Facebook alone cannot police itself, nor can this industry self-regulate. We need comprehensive policy intervention, starting with Congressional reform of Section 230," Greenblatt said, referring to section 230 (c) (2) of the Communications Decency Act, which allows social media platforms to avoid facing legal liability for user-generated content on their sites."This also is why we need independent solutions for holding Facebook accountable and the entire industry. We call on lawmakers to pass legislation that would make all social media platforms more transparent and accountable for dangerous disinformation and misinformation, as well as hate content,” Greenblatt concluded.House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer applauded Facebook Inc's decision to maintain its suspension of Donald Trump, which was originally announced after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, saying it has the right to refuse to be a medium for the former Republican president.
"I applaud that decision. Facebook is not the public square," Hoyer said in a Washington Post live interview.
The former president incited the deadly rioting at the US Capitol by his supporters and continues to falsely claim that the 2020 presidential election won by Democratic President Joe Biden was flawed, Hoyer said.
Facebook's decision says they do not want to be an organ for somebody who incited an insurrection, he said.
"So they've made a determination and they don't want to be an avenue to convey that, through their medium, and I think they have the right to do that," Hoyer said.
Hoyer said the impact of social media and the tech companies has drawn a lot of interest on Capitol Hill and lawmakers plan to review outdated regulations governing them. "We're going to look at that closely," he said.
Facebook blocked Trump’s account two days after the insurrection at the Capitol in January, the first time a major social network has denied access indefinitely to a sitting president of the United States.Trump has remained barred from the platform since then – a ban which is three days away from being five months long. The initial ban was supposed to last until the end of his presidential term.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the policy, citing the president’s conduct following the mob violence at the Capitol.“We believe the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg posted at the time. “Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely, and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”Both Facebook and Twitter blocked access to Trump's account following the insurrection at the Capitol. Twitter permanently suspended Trump's account while Facebook's ban is still under review.Other social media companies also joined the bandwagon, with Twitch and YouTube indefinitely suspending the former president's account as well.Twitter had temporarily blocked Trump's account, which had more than 88 million followers, following the siege of Capitol Hill, and warned that additional violations by the president's accounts would result in a permanent suspension.Trump was required to delete three rule-breaking tweets before his account was unblocked, and after doing so he returned to Twitter on Thursday with a video acknowledging that Joe Biden would be the next US president.Twitter said that Trump's tweet that he would not be attending Biden's inauguration was being received by a number of his supporters as further confirmation that the November 3 election that he lost was not legitimate.It said another tweet praising "American Patriots" and saying his supporters "will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!" could be seen as "further indication that President Trump does not plan to facilitate an orderly transition."Trump was barred from Twitter on January 9, due to concerns of further violent unrest following the deadly January 6 storming of the Capitol by his supporters.In the past, Facebook has allowed controversial content from the president that Twitter shielded or labeled. But that policy changed on Wednesday, when Trump posted a video and other statements that were equivocal regarding the violence, and that praised or encouraged the rioters.The announcement was a stunning shift for Facebook, not only because it’s the first time a major social network has blocked the sitting President of the United States from using its platform for such an extended period. Facebook has been criticized for years for not doing enough to censor hateful posts and disinformation, including from Trump.Trump's personal @realDonaldTrump account has sometimes fired off more than 100 tweets a day and been used to communicate with his supporters, spread misinformation, insult opponents and fire staff.Both Twitter and Facebook have long afforded Trump special privileges as a sitting elected world leader, saying that tweets that may violate the company's policies would not be removed because they were in the public interest.Twitter Inc. has said its ban on Trump is permanent, even if he runs for office again. YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc., which is also the parent company of Google, has said it will restore Trump's channel when it decides the risk of violence has decreased.Zachary Keyser, Reuters and Ben Sales/JTA contributed to this report.