Facebook's recent decision to keep former President Donald Trump's ban in place until 2023 has anger some. A total of 31 advocacy groups bought a full page ad in The San Jose Mercury News, on Thursday. The open letter to Facebook was addresses to Mark Zuckerberg and calls out the Oversight Boards recent decision as not enough, especially if you consider how Trump "weaponized the platform... to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government," throwing Zuckerberg's word back at him.
How could Zuckerberg even consider letting him back on, the letter asks, "knowing full-well what he would do with it." saying that Facebook, "would be handing him a microphone through which he incited an insurrection." The Oversight Board's recent decision states that they will examine all of Trumps behavior in 2023, both on and off of social media, if they find that he "has ceases making the unfounded claims about election fraud in the manner that justified suspension on January 6th," then he will potentially be allowed back onto the social media platform.
The letter gives examples of Trumps behavior since January, and how he has continued "to spew election lies, extreme rhetoric, and dangerous conspiracy theories." It also expresses concern about his behavior, last week on the day they announced he might be allowed back onto the platform. In which "he sought to compel Pennsylvania lawmakers to overturn the state's 2020 results."
Groups such as Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Inc., Anti-Defamation League, Accountable Tech, Free Press, Decode Democracy, Liberation in a Generation, Secure Elections Network, and many more are calling for Facebook to ban the former president permanently. Saying that if they allow him back on they, "will be knowingly putting American lives and democracy at risk."