Facebook's Oversight Board on Wednesday upheld the social media giant's decision to suspend former US President Donald Trump's account in January after the Capitol riots, but criticised the indefinite suspension and gave the company six months to reexamine its arbitrary penalty.
"(The then) President Trump's actions on social media encouraged and legitimised violence and were a severe violation of Facebook's rules," said Thomas Hughes, Director of the Oversight Board Administration, which was created by Facebook as an independent oversight body.
"By maintaining an unfounded narrative of electoral fraud and persistent calls to action, Trump created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible. Facebook's decision to suspend the President on January 7 was the right one," he said as the board upheld Facebook's decision on January 7 to suspend Trump from Facebook and Instagram.
Noting that Facebook failed to impose a proper penalty, the Board said that instead of applying one of its established account-level penalties for severe violations, Facebook devised an ‘indefinite' suspension which is not included in their content policies.
This arbitrary penalty gave Facebook total discretion over whether to lift or maintain the suspension, with no criteria that can be scrutinised by users or external observers, it said in a statement.
"The Board rejects Facebook's request for it to endorse indefinite suspension, which gives the company total discretion over when to lift or impose and isn't supported by their content policies.