A group of Democrats have been calling on Meta to extend the ban on former President Donald Trump’s Facebook account as they are claiming he could incite violence and use his influence to further undermine the country’s democracy. This overall push comes after Meta announced their own deadline for deciding what to do regarding Trump’s account. The date has been set for January, which would also mark two years since Trump’s account got suspended as a result of the U.S. Capitol attack.
Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., André Carson, D-Ind., and Kathy Castor, D-Fla., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., have pointed to Trump’s Truth Social posts as evidence of the “harmful election content” that he might choose to spread through his platform on Facebook. The case created by the Democrats was also sent through a letter to Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, on Wednesday.
The Democrats noted that they were convinced that should Trump be allowed back on Facebook this would be the type of conspiratorial rhetoric that he would promote. They added that this rhetoric can be used to incite violence and that Meta is responsible for ensuring that such rhetoric is not spread through their platforms.
As a response, a Meta spokesperson attached the blog post that Clegg had written in June 2021 regarding the decision to have Trump’s account reevaluated. In it, Clegg noted that Meta will “look to experts to assess whether the risk of public safety has receded,” and consider “instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly, and other markers of civil unrest.”
