We have specific rules on how often you must break certain policies: Mark Zuckerberg
PALO ALTO:
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told an all staff meeting on Thursday that former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon had not violated company policies enough to justify his suspension when he urged to behead two top US officials, according to a recording heard by Reuters.
Zuckerberg acknowledged criticism of Facebook by President-elect Joe Biden, but said the company shares some of the same concerns the Biden team has about social media. He urged employees not to jump to conclusions about how the new administration might approach regulating social media companies.
Bannon suggested in a video posted Nov. 5 that FBI Director Christopher Wray and government infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci should be beheaded, claiming they had been disloyal to US President Donald Trump, who lost the week. last his candidacy for re-election against Biden.
“I would put my head on spades. Okay. I would put them in both corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. Either you get with the program or you are gone,” Bannon said in the video.
Facebook deleted the video but left the Bannon page, which has around 175,000 followers. Twitter banned Bannon last week for the same content.
“We have specific rules regarding the number of times you must break certain policies before completely deactivating your account,” Zuckerberg said.
“While the infractions here, I think, almost crossed that line, they clearly didn’t cross the line.”
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said the company would take further action against the Bannon page “if there were further violations.”
Facebook took down a network of other Bannon-related pages last Friday that made false statements about the presidential election, after being reported to the world‘s largest social media company by activist group Avaaz.
Avaaz said seven of the biggest pages garnered nearly 2.5 million subscribers. Stone said Facebook had removed “several activity groups for using inauthentic behavior tactics to artificially increase the number of people who viewed their content.”
Bannon could not be reached immediately for comment.
Zuckerberg spoke out on the issue at a weekly forum with Facebook employees where he is sometimes asked to advocate for content and political decisions. A staff member asked why Bannon hadn’t been banned.
Another employee asked how Facebook was handling Facebook criticism of Biden and members of his team. Biden told the New York Times in December last year that he had “never been a fan of Facebook” and considered Zuckerberg “a real problem.”
The incoming administration was “not monolithic,” Zuckerberg said. “Just because some people may speak in a way that is more antagonistic to us, doesn’t necessarily mean what the whole group or the whole administration is going to stand up for.”
Arrested in August, Bannon pleaded not guilty to defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors as part of the $ 25 million “We Build the Wall” campaign. Bannon dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
As Trump’s chief White House strategist, Bannon helped articulate Trump’s “America First” policy. Trump fired him in August 2017, ending Bannon’s turbulent tenure.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
