Expert: Facebook board upholds Donald Trump suspension

Former U.S. President Donald Trump won't return to Facebook – at least not yet. Four months after Facebook suspended Trump's accounts for inciting violence that led to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the company's quasi-independent oversight board upheld the bans. But it told Facebook to specify how long they would last, saying that its "indefinite" ban on the former president was unreasonable. The ruling, which gives Facebook six months to comply, effectively postpones any possible Trump reinstatement and puts the onus for that decision squarely back on the company. (CTV News)

Here is an expert from McGill University that can provide comment on this issue:

Jason Opal, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of History and Classical Studies

“The Facebook Oversight Board's decision will certainly anger the roughly 35% of Americans who remain Trump loyalists and will probably stoke broader conservative anger over 'cancel culture.' However, the decision is a matter of commonsense in light of the ongoing criminal investigations over the 6 January attack on the Capitol. Besides, no one has a right to publicity, as distinct from freedom of speech and expression.”

Jason Opal is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History and Classical Studies, where he teaches and writes about the US Constitution in different periods of American history. His work tries to integrate social, cultural, and intellectual history and to shed light on such broad topics as nationalism, capitalism, democracy and U.S.-Canada foreign relations.

jason.opal [at] mcgill.ca (English, French)