Trump v Facebook: Ex-president rages at ban as White House says tech has responsibility to public

White House vows to ignore Trump if Facebook reinstates him

The Facebook Oversight Board has upheld the platform’s decision to ban Donald Trump for posts related to the attack on the US Capitol in January by his supporters.

An independent group that reviews the company’s most complex issues, the oversight panel also found that the platform was wrong to ban Mr Trump “indefinitely”, and insists that the company “apply and justify a defined penalty” – giving it six months to review its initial decision.

Mr Trump has reacted to the news with fury, demanding that “these corrupt social media companies must pay a political price”.

For its part, the White House says that social media companies have a responsibility to combat the spread of misinformation.

“The president’s view is that the major platforms have a responsibility related to the health and safety of all Americans to stop amplifying untrustworthy content, misinformation, disinformation – especially related to Covid-19, vaccines and elections,” press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Liz Cheney’s days in the House GOP leadership look to be numbered, with her immediate senior Steve Scalise officially coming out against her.

Mr Trump released another statement attacking Ms Cheney as throwing his support behind Elise Stefanik as the new party conference chair.

• Facebook is investigating two Trump posts - there are thousands of others they could have banned him over
• Who is on the Facebook oversight board and who have they banned?
• What did Trump post to get himself banned from Facebook and will he be reinstated?
• ‘He’s launched ... a blog’: Donald Trump mocked for new ‘communications platform’

Key Points

• Facebook panel upholds Trump ban
• Trump issues his own statement on Facebook ban
• Background on the Facebook ban
• Has Trump’s Facebook ban upended his 2024 plans?
• White House: social media companies have responsibility to block misinformation

[5 May 2021 11:26 · Zoe Tidman]

Who are on the Facebook Inc’s oversight board?

Facebook Inc’s independent oversight board, which will on Wednesday announce its decision on whether to uphold the company’s ban on former US President Donald Trump, currently consists of 20 members.

These are:

Co-chairs

Catalina Botero-Marino

Ms Botero-Marino is a Colombian attorney who was the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States from 2008 to 2014. She is now Dean of the Universidad de los Andes Faculty of Law.

Jamal Greene

Mr Greene is a Columbia Law professor whose scholarship focuses on constitutional rights adjudication and the structure of legal and constitutional argument. He was a law clerk for former US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Michael McConnell

Mr McConnell, now a constitutional law professor at Stanford Law, was a US federal circuit judge. Appointed by Republican President George W Bush, he was viewed as a possible US Supreme Court nominee.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt

Ms Thorning-Schmidt was the first woman prime minister of Denmark. The Social Democrat, who led a coalition government from 2011-2015, then served as the chief executive of charity Save the Children International.

Other members

Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei

A dual Ghanaian and South African citizen, Ms Asare-Kyei is a human rights advocate who works on women’s rights, media freedom, and access to information issues across Africa at the Open Society Initiative for West Africa.

Evelyn Aswad

Ms Aswad, now a University of Oklahoma College of Law professor, formerly served as a senior US State Department lawyer. She specializes in the application of international human rights standards to content moderation issues.

Endy Bayuni

Mr Bayuni is an Indonesian journalist who twice served as the editor-in-chief of the Jakarta Post and is involved with media advocacy organizations across the region.

Katherine Chen

A former national communications regulator in Taiwan, Ms Chen is currently a professor in public relations and statistics at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University. Her research focuses on social media, mobile news, and privacy.

Nighat Dad

Ms Dad is a Pakistani lawyer and internet activist who runs the Digital Rights Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on cyber harassment, data protection and free speech online in Pakistan and South Asia.

Suzanne Nossel

Ms Nossel is chief executive officer at freedom of expression non-profit PEN America. She was previously chief operating officer of Human Rights Watch, executive director of Amnesty International USA, and held roles in the administrations of U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

Tawakkol Karman

The Yemeni human rights activist and journalist became the first Arab woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her non-violent push for change during the Arab Spring.

Maina Kiai

Mr Kiai is a Kenyan lawyer and human rights activist who is director of Human Rights Watch’s Global Alliances and Partnerships Program and who served as the United Nations special rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association from 2011 to 2017.

Sudhir Krishnaswamy

Mr Krishnaswamy, the vice chancellor of the National Law School of India University, is an expert on India’s constitutional law and a civil society activist.

Ronaldo Lemos

Mr Lemos is a Brazilian academic and lawyer who co-created a national internet rights law in Brazil and co-founded a nonprofit focused on technology and policy issues. He teaches law at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.

Julie Owono

Ms Owono is a lawyer and the executive director of Internet Sans Frontieres, a digital rights organization based in France. She campaigns against internet censorship in Africa and around the world.

Emi Palmor

Ms Palmor is a former director general of the Israeli Ministry of Justice, who led initiatives to address racial discrimination and advance access to justice via digital services and platforms.

Alan Rusbridger

Mr Rusbridger is a British journalist who was the editor-in-chief of the Guardian newspaper. He is now the principal of Lady Margaret Hall, a college of Oxford University.

Andras Sajo

A Hungarian legal academic and former judge at the European Court of Human Rights, Mr Sajo is an expert in comparative constitutionalism and was involved in the drafting of the Ukrainian, Georgian and South African constitutions.

John Samples

Mr Samples is a vice president at the Cato Institute, a US libertarian think tank. He advocates against restrictions on online expression and writes on social media and speech regulation.

Nicolas Suzor

Mr Suzor is an associate law professor at Queensland University of Technology in Australia who studies the governance of social networks and the regulation of automated systems.

Reuters

[5 May 2021 11:43 · Zoe Tidman]

Media expert predicts Trump’s Facebook ban will be lifted

A media expert has said he expects Donald Trump’s Facebook ban will be overturned today.

Angelo Carusone, president and chief executive of Media Matters, made the predictions to The Independent:

[5 May 2021 12:02 · Zoe Tidman]

US birth rate falls

In other news from today, new figures show Americans had the lowest number of babies in more than four decades last year.

Birth rate in the US fell four per cent in 2020 to about 3.6 million babies, its sixth consecutive annual decline and the lowest since 1979, data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Centre for Health Statistics show.

While the body did not attribute the overall decline to the pandemic, but experts have predicted that pandemic-led reasons including anxiety will hit the country’s birth rate.

Many European countries have also seen a decline in births, and demographics experts have forecast a baby bust across the continent this year.

Additional reporting by Reuters

[5 May 2021 12:22 · Andrew Naughtie]

LA mayor could represent US in India

Reports are circulating that Joe Biden could pick Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to be his ambassador to India.

Like many mayors, Mr Garcetti has had a rocky ride during the pandemic, at times praised for showing genuine empathy with his city’s residents but also catching flack for some aspects of the authorities’ response – as well as for receiving a first vaccine dose before he met California’s eligibility criteria.

[5 May 2021 12:36 · Andrew Naughtie]

Breaking news: Plane crash kills four in Mississippi

A civilian aeroplane has crashed into a home in Mississippi, killing four people. Louise Hall has the story.

[5 May 2021 12:56 · Andrew Naughtie]

Derek Chauvin seeking new trial

After being convicted of the murder and manslaughter of George Floyd, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is now seeking a new trial on the basis of alleged “pervasive prosecutorial misconduct”.

Among other things, his defence team are citing the public pressure on the jury to return a guilty verdict and the fact that the trial was not moved outside Minneapolis, as well as the state supposedly “overloading” the witness stand. For its part, the prosecution team says most of the defence’s arguments have already been rejected.

Josh Marcus has more.

[5 May 2021 13:17 · Andrew Naughtie]

Facebook advertisers brace for possible Trump return

If Donald Trump is allowed back onto Facebook, the advertisers who drive so much of the company’s revenue will have difficult choices to make, writes the Wall Street Journal – and as the decision comes down the line, Facebook has been trying to get out in front of what could be a major problem.

Read more here.

[5 May 2021 13:28 · Andrew Naughtie]

No. 2 house Republican adds pressure to get Cheney out

Steve Scalise, the second most senior House Republican, has added his voice to those clamouring to kick Liz Cheney out of the GOP leadership.

He is calling for her to be replaced by New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress when she arrived in 2014. She was a dogged defender of Mr Trump’s at his impeachment hearings, and is often referred to as a “rising star”.

[5 May 2021 13:49 · Andrew Naughtie]

How social media bans drained Trump of influence

A report from social media analytics company NewsWhip has illustrated the sheer impact of major companies’ decision to ban Donald Trump from their platforms.

Since the start of this year, social media interactions about Mr Trump have apparently dropped off by an incredible 91 per cent, an enormous collapse for a man whose every word once had the power to shift the news cycle hour by hour.

[5 May 2021 14:08 · Andrew Naughtie]

Facebook panel upholds Trump ban

And that’s that: Donald Trump will not be allowed back onto Facebook.

The oversight panel went against pessimistic predictions from experts who expected the ban to be overturned, and while it had some sharp words for the company, the ex-president will not be given back the platform he badly craves.

You can read the panel’s full judgment here.