Facebook Bans Trump for 2 Years, But Its Design Still Marginalizes Key Voices in Public Discourse

Social media giant Facebook has announced it has suspended former President Donald Trump’s account until at least 2023. He was initially suspended from the platform for comments to supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and is permanently banned on Twitter.

Facebook’s move could have implications for other world leaders who use Facebook, like Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, said he is not sure the decision struck the right balance for protecting free speech but is defensible because Facebook “has a responsibility to ensure that the people using its platform aren’t using it to undermine democracy or incite violence.”

But he argues the much bigger issue is Facebook’s engineering and design decisions, such as ranking algorithms, which really determine which speech gets heard or marginalized.

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