Back to square one? Trump decision still weighs on Facebook

Back to square one? Trump decision still weighs on Facebook

SeattlePI.com

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Suppose you were Mark Zuckerberg, recently ordered by an advisory board to decide how long former President Donald Trump should stay banned from Facebook. How do you make that decision without alienating key constituencies — advertisers, shareholders, users, lawmakers and others — while staying true to your own sense of what Facebook should be?

It’s a hypothetical exercise, but one that illustrates the high-wire act Facebook’s leadership now has to pull off.

Facebook's quasi-independent oversight board last week said the company was justified in suspending Trump because of his role in inciting deadly violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. But it told Facebook to specify how long the suspension would last, saying that its “indefinite” ban on the former president was unreasonable.

The ruling, which gives Facebook six months to comply, effectively postpones any possible Trump reinstatement and puts the onus for that decision squarely back on the company — the exact scenario Zuckerberg was likely trying to avoid in the first place.

For years, he and other Facebook executives have insisted that Facebook should not be the “arbiter of truth” and that as a tech company it shouldn’t be making decisions on thorny societal matters such as free speech. Zuckerberg has stated publicly numerous times that he supports government regulation, although the rules Facebook wants aren’t always the same as those regulators might seek.

The company said this week it has no updates on its plans for Trump's accounts beyond what it said last week, when it said it will review the board's decision and “determine an action that is clear and proportionate." It plans to respond to the board’s recommendations within 30 days of the decision.

Here are some of the constituents that could have strong...

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