White House: Facebook ban won’t change Trump’s behavior

The White House has said it is unlikely former US President Trump will change his behavior to warrant reinstatement on Facebook after the tech giant suspended him for two years.

"As we look at it, we learned a lot from President Trump, the former president, over the last couple of years about his behavior and how he uses these platforms," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday.

"Feels pretty unlikely that the zebra’s going to change his stripes over the next two years. We’ll see," she added.

Facebook announced on Friday that Trump would be suspended for two years, until January 7, 2023, saying his praise of protesters who stormed the US Capitol earlier this year was a “severe violation.” After that date, the platform said it will evaluate whether the "risk to public safety" of restoring Trump's account has abated.

Trump will be subject to a "strict" set of restrictions for future policy violations if the suspension is lifted, Facebook added.

“Of course, this penalty only applies to our services — Mr. Trump is and will remain free to express himself publicly via other means,” Facebook said.

Psaki said social media platforms have a responsibility to police misinformation.

"It’s a decision for the company to make and any platform to make and clearly they’ve come out and made their decision," Psaki said.

"Our view continues to be, though, that every platform ... that is disseminating information to millions of Americans has a responsibility to crack down on disinformation, to crack down on false information, whether it’s about the election or even about the vaccine as we’re trying to keep the American public safe and return to normal out in society,” she added.

Facebook shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this ‘insult: Trump

Trump in a statement on Friday afternoon called the decision to ban him for two more years "an insult" to Americans who voted for him while reiterating that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged."

“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!” Trump said in the statement released by his Save America PAC.

“Facebook’s ruling is an insult to the record-setting 75M people, plus many others, who voted for us in the 2020 Rigged Presidential Election,” he added.

Facebook, which is headquartered in California, the United States, suspended Trump's account following the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, which left at least five people dead, including a Capitol police officer.

Twitter and YouTube followed the suit, citing further risk of violence and incitement by the Republican president.

The unprecedented decision was later referred to the Facebook Oversight Board, an independent body vested with power to reverse Facebook content decisions and set precedent for the company.

"We know that any penalty we apply — or choose not to apply — will be controversial," Facebook's Nick Clegg said Friday. "We know today’s decision will be criticized by many people on opposing sides of the political divide — but our job is to make a decision in as proportionate, fair and transparent a way as possible, in keeping with the instruction given to us by the Oversight Board."

Nadler: Facebook has ‘an absolute right to ban liars'

US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler on Friday hailed Facebook for its suspension of Trump.

"I think Facebook was right. I think that they have an absolute right to ban liars and the president — the former president — is an absolute liar. It's not a question of free speech, because free speech is a question of the government limiting free speech, and there's no question of that here,” Nadler said.

“Private companies ... can print whatever they want, and I think they're right to not print lies,” Nadler added.

In November Trump said his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, won because the presidential election on November 3, 2020 was "rigged."

“He won because the election was rigged. No vote watchers or observers allowed, vote tabulated by a radical left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!” Trump tweeted.
 

Trump: Biden 'won because the election was rigged'

Trump seems to have implicitly conceded defeat to Joe Biden while claims the election was rigged.

On January 6, a group of mobs supporting Trump launched a deadly assault on the US Capitol, disrupting briefly the certification of the election results.

The assault, which left five people dead, including a member of law enforcement, prompted a historic second impeachment trial against Trump, but the Republican-controlled Senate acquitted the former president.

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