Mark Zuckerberg on not suspending ex-Trump aid's FB account: 'Offences didn't cross line'

On November 12, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg defended the former White House adviser Steve Bannon in an all-staff meeting, saying, he hadn’t violated “enough” company's policies for suspension from Facebook. However, according to confirmation by several news agencies, the ex-Trump aide had said in a video posted on November 5 that FBI Director Christopher Wray and government infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci “should be beheaded”. Bannon implied to condemn the top US officials’ disloyalty to President Trump. Zuckerberg, meanwhile, defended Bannon’s suspension, saying there has to be enough number of times the policies need to be violated before completely disabling the account, according to a Guardian report. 

Zuckerberg explained that Bannon’s statement was, in fact, a crime that was potentially close to crossing the line, but obviously “it wasn’t”. Bannon, according to the content of the video, had warned the federal bureaucrats that he would put those heads “on a pike” on each side of the White House as he addressed nearly 175,000 followers on Facebook. Zuckerberg’s actions involved taking down the video immediately, although, microblogging site Twitter banned Bannon over violent and offensive content from the platform. Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Facebook reportedly said that the social media form will take action only when there are additional violations. 

[Bannon claimed that President Trump had won reelection while the key states were still too close to call. Credit: AP]

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Twitter account 'permanently' suspended

In an interview with US’ broadcaster CBS, a Twitter spokesperson called Bannon’s video offensive, adding, that the @WarRoomPandemic account was “permanently” suspended. Twitter said that Bannon’s statement was a glorification of violence and clearly violated the rules. Twitter’s policies prohibit public threats of violence, abuse and harassment, and hateful conduct and prompt enforcement actions. However, Bannon's account was still active on Facebook. Meanwhile, Facebook banned the "Stop the Steal” hashtag circulating on social media that urged the Trump supporters to come out and protest Biden’s “illegal” win as it alleged that the Democrats were “stealing" the elections from the Republicans. 

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