Facebook’s Oversight Board announced Wednesday that former President Trump’s ban from the popular platform will be upheld due to the “justified” risk of violence if he continued to post.
Trump, who received 74 million votes in November and is considered to be the most influential Republican by far, was blamed in many circles for inciting the crowd that stormed the U.S. Capitol on 6 January.
His supporters reject the claim and point to a part of his speech where he urged the crowd to remain peaceful. Facebook saw Trump’s use of the platform as a risk for additional unrest.
Trump blasted the company’s decision in a statement, saying, “Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth.”
Trump was likely referring to the election results that he insisted went to Joe Biden due to irregularities. He has not proven his case in court.
Facebook’s decision prompted swift backlash from Republicans who have already looked at the company as too big and influential. Sen. Marsha Blackburn said it is “clear that Mark Zuckerberg views himself as the arbiter of free speech.”
The New York Times reported that it was Nick Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister, who helped steer the company’s decision regarding Trump. Clegg oversees the company’s public affairs, according to the paper.
The paper said it was Clegg who told Zuckerberg that the panel should make the decision on Trump, and the CEO responded, “I defer to you, Nick.”
The paper said it was an “unlikely position for a British political veteran in such an important moment for American free speech.”
Nate Persily, a professor at Stanford University’s law school, told The Times that the case has “dramatic implications for the future of speech online because the public and other platforms are looking at how the oversight board will handle what is a difficult controversy that will arise again around the world.”
The Trends Journal has reported on the challenges that some of these tech companies present to freedom of speech. In our 27 October article, “FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS UNDER ATTACK AS ONLINE CENSORSHIP INCREASES,” we pointed out that “Censorship” was a Top Trend of 2019. We have been warning for years that Silicon Valley is silencing users on the internet who dare challenge the official narrative.
Ever since the politicians and Presstitutes started the COVID War, censorship has increased dramatically.
On 19 January, in an article titled, “TWITTER’S KING MULLS MORE CENSORSHIP,” we reported on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s announcement that Trump was permanently banned from his social media platform.
“We are focused on one account right now, but this is going to be much bigger than just one account, and it’s going to go on for much longer than just this day, this week, and the next few weeks, and go on beyond the inauguration,” Dorsey said in a video leaked to the guerilla news site Project Veritas.
The Times’ report pointed out that Zuckerberg has insisted it is not his intention to mold Facebook into some kind of “arbiter of truth.” Critics of Facebook say that this company-funded panel of journalists and media professionals provides cover for the company, so it can deflect blame during tough decisions. The Financial Times referred to the board as a “Supreme Court-style body.”
The board said Trump’s use of the platform remains a threat because he has maintained “an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action.”
Trump said these “corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process.”
TRENDPOST: Love Trump, hate Trump it does not matter. Banning the President of the United States is the new ABnormal in the United Soviet States of America.
Beyond censoring Trump, as we have long forecast, censorship has become the American way. Whether from the few Big Tech Monopolies that control the Internet or the six Media Monopolies that own over 90 percent of America’s media… freedom of speech is essentially dead in the “Land of the Free.”
Again, as we have continually reported, anyone not buying the official COVID War narrative has been banned from the Internet, as are all who challenge the Silicon Con-men’s narrative on a variety of issues ranging from human rights to foreign affairs.
