Yahoo Finance Donald Trump video clip removed from Facebook ‘in line with block’
Facebook on Wednesday removed a clip of an interview with Donald Trump from its platform, according to the former president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
In a post shared to her Instagram account, Lara Trump, who is a Fox News commentator, shared a message from Facebook officials alerting her they had removed a video teaser of an upcoming interview with her father-in-law on Fox News.
The message sent from Facebook explained that the video had been removed “in line with the block placed on Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts”.
“This guidance applies to all campaign accounts and Pages, including Team Trump, other campaign messaging vehicles on our platforms, and former surrogates,” the email, posted to Instagram stated.
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It added that “any further content posted in the voice of Donald Trump will be removed and result in additional limitations on the accounts”.
Donald Trump has been banned from Facebook since early January, after fomenting and then failing to condemn the violent insurrection of the Capitol. At the time, chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg said the company believed “the risks of allowing the president to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great”.
The question of whether to allow Trump to return to the platform is being debated by the Facebook Oversight Board, a group appointed by Facebook including former politicians, policy experts and academics meant to make independent content decisions. A decision on the fate of Trump’s account is reported to be imminent.
Trump saw his accounts removed from several social media platforms following the insurrection, including Twitter and Facebook-owned Instagram. Twitter has said the former president will never be allowed to return.
Trump’s ban from the platforms has stoked the flames of the argument made by many Republicans that conservative views are unfairly censored from social media firms. The accusation has been brought up repeatedly in antitrust hearings despite having little basis in reality. In fact, rather than experiencing censorship, studies show conservative content frequently out-performs liberal content on Facebook and is seen by more users.
Facebook did not immediately respond to request for comment.
