Trump's Facebook ban upheld by Oversight Board - NBC News

“It is not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored.”The ruling pushes Facebook to more clearly define what the penalties are for world leaders who violate its rules, a topic that sparked worldwide debate even before Trump and that hangs over the company as Trump considers his own future.“The Oversight Board is clearly telling Facebook they can’t invent new, unwritten rules when it suits them,” said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, a co-chair of the Oversight Board and a former prime minister of Denmark, on a call with reporters.Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president of global affairs and communications, said in a blog post responding to the board’s criticism that the company will "now consider the board’s decision and determine an action that is clear and proportionate.""In the meantime, Mr. Trump’s accounts remain suspended," Clegg wrote.Trump, in a written statement responding to the decision, attacked the actions of Facebook, Twitter and Google as a “total disgrace and an embarrassment.” “Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth, but the truth will come out anyway, bigger and stronger than ever before,” Trump said. A minority also urged the board to take into account Trump’s posts from earlier in his presidency that “contributed to racial tension and exclusion,” but a majority chose to decide the case on more limited grounds.The opinion also urges Facebook to launch an internal investigation to review “its own potential contribution to the narrative of electoral fraud.”The decision does not apply to Twitter, YouTube or any of the other services that banned or restricted Trump in the wake of the Capitol attack.The Oversight Board's decision is likely to become fodder for Republican lawmakers and other critics of the increasing power that Facebook and other tech companies wield over political debate and online speech.It also could be a far-reaching precedent for how some of the internet's biggest platforms treat the speech of world leaders and politicians.