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On May 5, 2021, the Facebook Oversight Board announced that it had made a decision regarding former U.S. President Donald Trump's ban from the social network. As this news circulated, many people rushed to social media (and television) with incorrect statements about the board's decision. On Fox News, for example, a chyron briefly appeared that stated: Facebook Oversight Board Bans Trump for Life. The Twitter account for Newsmax also posted a message stating that Facebook has decided to permanently ban former President Donald Trump from its platform. But Trump has not been banned for life from Facebook. Yet. On Jan 6. 2021, a violent mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to delay the certification of President Joe Biden's electoral victory spurred on in part by the multitude of election falsehoods that Trump had peddled. In the days after the attack, several social media networks announced that they were banning Trump to prevent him from posting messages that could encourage further violence. Twitter, for instance, announced that they had permanently suspended [Trump's] account due to the risk of further incitement of violence. Facebook made a similar announcement. However, Facebook said that they were banning Trump's account for an indefinite period of time (not permanently) as they believed he would continue to use his account to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor. A few weeks later, Facebook announced that it had formed an independent Oversight Board that would review the merits of Trump's suspension: On May 5, Facebook's Oversight Board announced that it upheld Facebook's initial decision to suspend Trump's account. However, the board did not state that this ban should be permanent. Rather, the board said that it was not appropriate for Facebook to suspend Trump's account for an indefinite period of time and gave Facebook six months to determine if Trump's account should be permanently banned. The Facebook Oversight Board wrote: In other words, while Trump is still banned from Facebook, that could change (or could be made permanent) within six months.
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