Elizabeth Warren said Wednesday that Facebook's decision to uphold its ban on former President Donald Trump's account further exhi...
Elizabeth Warren said Wednesday that Facebook's decision to uphold its ban on former President Donald Trump's account further exhibits Big Tech has too much power and needs to be broken up.
'I'm glad that Donald Trump is not going to be on Facebook,' the progressive senator from Massachusetts clarified to Yahoo Finance. 'Suits me.'
'But part two is that this is just further demonstration that these giant tech companies are way, way, way too powerful,' she asserted during an interview.
'They need to be broken up in order to keep commerce flourishing,' she said, echoing her calls during her 2020 bid to be the Democratic nominee for president.
On Wednesday, Facebook announced that its Oversight Board - it's so-called Supreme Court - had decided to ban Trump from that platform and Instagram for another six months after issuing an indefinite ban the day after the January 6 Capitol attack, for which Democrats claim the former president is responsible.
Of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling the Oversight Board the 'Supreme Court', Warren said: 'Listen to the arrogance of it.'
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said Wednesday that Facebook upholding its ban on Donald Trump's account proves Big Tech is 'way too power'
Facebook's oversight board, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg (pictured above) called its 'Supreme Court', decided Wednesday to indefinitely ban Trump from Facebook and Instagram after issuing a temporary ban the day after the January 6 Capitol attack
'The name of the group that made the decision is called the Supreme Court,' the Democrat congresswoman bemoaned. 'I missed the part where those people had hearings in front of Congress, and were voted on before they were made decision makers with this kind of authority.'
'We need to break up these big tech companies,' she added.
Warren later noted: 'They have too much influence and they pose a threat to our democracy. Time to enforce our antitrust laws.'
She also complained in a tweet Wednesday that Facebook is a disinformation machine.
'Facebook profits off of disinformation,' she wrote. 'That was true when Donald Trump was allowed on the platform, and it's still true today. He should be banned for good, but that won't solve the larger problem. We still need to rein in disinformation and protect our democracy.
Trump said in a statement Thursday that Big Tech companies banning him from the website are just another way to dismiss his claims of widespread voter fraud and a 'rigged' 2020 election.
After January 6, Twitter and YouTube also banned Trump. On January 8, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey decided to permanently ban Trump, even though he was still president at the time.
Trump created other ways to communicate with supporters, including sending out statements from two separate email accounts – his Save America PAC, which comes more frequently and in the former president's voice, and his Office of the 45th President, which usually sends out more official statements written by his team.
This week, Trump unveiled a new webpage called 'From the Desk of Donald J. Trump', where he publishes statements that usually go out from his PAC email account, along with a few other related posts. The posts appear in a Twitter timeline-like way.
'The Fake News Media, working in close conjunction with Big Tech and the Radical Left Democrats, is doing everything they can to perpetuate the term 'The Big Lie' when speaking of 2020 Presidential Election Fraud,' Trump complained in a statement on Thursday.
Trump's team created a Twitter account Wednesday to post those statements, potentially in a way to circumvent his ban on the site and better communicate with supporters. Trump was a prolific Twitter user and boasted 88 million followers.
Twitter immediately shut down @DJTDesk overnight for 'violating Twitter rules.'
The new Trump website, which was launched earlier this week, allows fans to repost his statements to their own Facebook and Twitter feeds, a feature that is still active.
Trump released a statement Wednesday claiming the decision by Facebook to uphold its ban on his accounts is a 'total disgrace' and claimed Big Tech will pay a 'political price' for taking away his free speech.
In an email to supporters on Wednesday from his Save America political action committee, Trump fumed: 'What Facebook, Twitter, and Google have done is a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our Country.
'Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth, but the truth will come out anyway, bigger and stronger than ever before.
'The People of our Country will not stand for it! These corrupt social media companies must pay a political price, and must never again be allowed to destroy and decimate our Electoral Process.'
Trump was banned from Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in January in response to the Capitol riot, which the social media sites claim he stoked. It was an unprecedented move of censorship on a world leader and sparked a global debate over how much control social media and big tech should have over free speech.
It was then turned over to Facebook's Oversight Board to decide if it was the right thing to do.
The oversight board was set up by Facebook as an apparent self-check mechanism, amid growing calls for it to be split up because it is too powerful.
It is funded by Facebook- all of its 20 left-leaning members are paid six figures for doing approximately 15 hours of work a week. Its sole purpose is to rule on issues that are too big for Facebook or to make decisions it simply doesn't want to.
But in their decision on Wednesday, the five deciding board members (who are not named) refused to rule either way.
Republicans reacted furiously and the decision has only galvanized their efforts to break Facebook up.
The board justified their refusal by criticizing Facebook for not giving Trump a timeframe for how long the ban would last.
'In applying a vague, standardless penalty and then referring this case to the Board to resolve, Facebook seeks to avoid its responsibilities. The Board declines Facebook's request and insists that Facebook apply and justify a defined penalty,' they said.
Wednesday's decision not only tosses the decision back to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but it also gives him another six months to consider what to do.
In the meantime, the former president remains offline and unable to communicate with his tens of millions of social media supporters.
The board also revealed that in its investigation of the issue, Facebook refused to answer questions about whether it played a role in the riot, and whether it continued to profit from ads that targeted Trump's followers after he'd been banned.
In response to the decision, Facebook's VP of Global Affairs, former UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, said: 'We thank the oversight board for the care and attention they gave this case.
'We will now consider the board's guidance and develop a response that is clear and proportionate.
'In the meantime, Mr. Trump's accounts remain suspended.'
Republicans called it a 'sad day for America', 'disgraceful' and renewed calls to break up the Silicon Valley giant.
'Disgraceful. For every liberal celebrating Trump's social media ban, if the Big Tech oligarchs can muzzle the former President, what's stopping them from silencing you?' Texas Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted.
Mark Meadows, Trump's former White House Chief of Staff, said in an interview with FOX: 'It's a sad day for America. It's a sad day for Facebook, 'cuz I can tell you, a number of members of Congress are now looking at, do they break up Facebook?
'Do they make sure that they don't have a monopoly?
'There are two different standards: One for Donald Trump and one for another number of people on their sites who are suggesting things more nefarious than what the President has been accused of.'
Corey Lewandowski, one of Trump's advisers, said: 'Facebook and Twitter and others have clearly established two different sets of rules.
'One if you're a conservative or a Republican or have a different ideology than them and one if you're a liberal.'
Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn said: 'Facebook's decision to uphold its ban on President Donald Trump is extremely disappointing. It's clear that Mark Zuckerberg views himself as the arbiter of free speech.'
Texas Senator Ted Cruz was among Republicans who slammed the decision on Wednesday
'I'm broadly supportive of the antitrust recommendations released by Rep. Ken Buck last October.
'Current antitrust law needs to be amended to better handle competition in digital markets, antitrust agencies should be beefed up and they need to regulate mergers and acquisitions more strictly,' Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Banks told Fox News.
In its 11,000-word ruling, the board said that Trump 'severely violated' Facebook's policies with his January 6 posts where he told rioters: 'We love you, you're very special.'
It also said he 'created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible' by constantly claiming he was the victim of election fraud - which the board said was an 'an unfounded narrative'.
'As president, Mr. Trump had a high level of influence. The reach of his posts was large, with 35 million followers on Facebook and 24 million on Instagram.
'Given the seriousness of the violations and the ongoing risk of violence, Facebook was justified in suspending Mr. Trump's accounts on January 6 and extending that suspension on January 7,' the decision reads in part.
'However, it was not appropriate for Facebook to impose an 'indefinite' suspension.
'It is not permissible for Facebook to keep a user off the platform for an undefined period, with no criteria for when or whether the account will be restored,' the decision says.
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