The White House backed Facebook’s decision to suspend former President Donald Trump for two years, predicting he is unlikely to drop the sharp rhetoric that led to his initial ban from social media platforms.
The social media giant announced Friday Trump would be suspended for two years, retroactive to his Jan. 7 suspension from Facebook and Instagram due to his role leading up to the Capitol riot the previous day. That means the Republican stalwart could return to both sites by early 2023 — potentially in the heat of a GOP presidential primary fight and as the party’s front-runner if he decides to run again. However, it would still deprive the party of its most robust voice during the 2022 midterm elections on the platforms.
But President Joe Biden’s top spokeswoman doubts Trump will do enough over the coming months to earn his way out of the ban.
“Feels pretty unlikely that the zebra is going to change his stripes over the next two years,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday. “We’ll see.”
The social media platform said Trump would be suspended so long as it deems him a “serious risk” to public safety.
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Should his accounts be turned back on, the 45th commander in chief’s posts would be closely scrutinized, Facebook said in a statement.
He would be subject to “a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in [the] future, up to and including permanent removal of his pages and accounts,” according to Facebook.
The former president responded to the announcement, claiming the platform is censoring him and other conservatives.
“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,” Trump said in a brief statement, a tactic he’s used to reach followers in lieu of his social media posts.
“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win,” he contended. “Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!”
After its own independent review panel, the social firm issued the two-year suspension and asked company officials to review Trump’s ban over what it dubbed a “vague, standardless penalty.” Still, the board sided with the company over the initial ban.
Trump spent several weeks before the violent Capitol insurrection — during which supporters chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” because his then-vice president declined to halt Congress’s count of the Electoral College vote Biden won — urging his backers to come to Washington on Jan. 6.
The then-president told his social media followers the day would be “wild.” Once onstage at a rally near the White House, he encouraged supporters to walk to the Capitol and “fight like hell.”
“And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,” he said minutes before his supporters, many wearing pro-Trump gear or flying flags with his last name in large block letters, overran Capitol Police officers and ransacked the legislative hall.
Since banning Trump and other conservatives whom the company claims used equally harsh rhetoric, Facebook has come under fire for alleged censorship.
Its standards include confusing rules and penalties, with company officials promising greater transparency.
For the White House’s part, Psaki said the decision to extend Trump’s suspension into 2023 is a “decision for any company to make.”
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But she also said the administration sees a responsibility for all social media outlets to “crack down on false information.”
