Facebook removes ‘voice of Donald Trump’ from platform
1 April 2021, 11:24
The company took down an interview of the former president with daughter-in-law Lara Trump amid his ongoing social media ban.
Facebook has removed a video of Donald Trump from his daughter-in-law’s page.
Mr Trump was banned from the social media platform in the wake of the riots at the US Capitol in January.
An interview with the former president by Lara Trump, a new Fox News contributor, had been posted to her Facebook page, but later disappeared.
Ms Trump then posted a screenshot of two emails she had received from Facebook – one warning that content “in the voice of Donald Trump” is currently not allowed on the platform, and another later confirming that the video had been removed “in line with the block we placed on Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts”.
The social network has not commented further on the decision.
Ms Trump, who is married to Mr Trump’s son, Eric, has since posted a link to the interview on another website.
Facebook, along with a number of other social media platforms, banned Mr Trump from their sites in the wake of the violence at the US Capitol on January 6 as politicians certified Joe Biden’s election victory, and after Mr Trump called those who stormed the Capitol “patriots”, adding “We love you”.
At the time, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said the social media giant had taken the decision because Mr Trump had used the platform to “incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government”.
He added that the risk of allowing the then-president to continue using Facebook at that time was “too great”.
The decision to remove Mr Trump remains under review by Facebook’s independent oversight board, which was set up to rule on controversial content moderation decisions.
The former president may even create his own platform as a way of returning to social media, with his senior adviser, Jason Miller, telling Fox News earlier this month that Mr Trump is considering such a move.
