Nick Clegg, VP of Global Affairs and Communications in Facebook, announced that the company is referring its decision to indefinitely suspend former US President Donald Trump’s access to his Facebook and Instagram accounts to Facebook’s independent Oversight Board.
“The board was established last year to make the final call on some of the most difficult content decisions Facebook makes”, Clegg explained,
“It is an independent body and its decisions are binding — they can’t be overruled by CEO Mark Zuckerberg or anyone else at Facebook. The board itself is made up of experts and civic leaders from around the world with a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives”.
“We believe our decision was necessary and right”, he added, “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”.
Facebook announced that while they await the board’s decision, Trump’s access will remain suspended indefinitely.
“Our decision to suspend then-President Trump’s access was taken in extraordinary circumstances”, Clegg added, “a US president actively fomenting a violent insurrection designed to thwart the peaceful transition of power; five people killed; legislators fleeing the seat of democracy. This has never happened before — and we hope it will never happen again. It was an unprecedented set of events which called for unprecedented action”.
“In making our decision”, he added, “our first priority was to assist in the peaceful transfer of power. This is why, when announcing the suspension on January 7, we said it would be indefinite and for at least two weeks. We are referring it to the Oversight Board now that the inauguration has taken place”.
Source: Arutz Sheva