Thread by @FBoversight

NEW: Facebook’s self-funded Oversight Board will announce tomorrow whether Trump stays or goes. There will be an 🧨explosion 🧨 of headlines. *Which is exactly what Facebook wants*

It wins if he stays. It wins if he goes.
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Imagine Phillip Morris set up the Independent Tobacco Oversight Board in the 80s. Then imagine it deliberated for 3 months over whether to sell cigarettes to kids. This is no different. It’s Facebook distracting attention from its own version of its cancer-causing chemicals.
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*Of course* Donald Trump should be permanently banned from Facebook! This is the no brainer of no brainers. He's violated Facebook’s terms of services repeatedly, incited hate & violence & super spreads disinfo. End of.
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Reinstating Trump would be an outrage. The Oversight Board will have invited one of the world’s most notorious racists and purveyors of disinfo back onto Facebook. And give the green light to authoritarians across the world.
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The Oversight Board is not a Supreme Court. Because Facebook is not a country. It’s a private company that can and should ban Trump as a serial violator of its *own* terms of service.
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The “free speech” argument is not an argument, it’s a lie. Donald Trump can say what he likes. But no social media company is obliged to spread his hate and incitements to violence.
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Either way, this is a distraction. What’s needed is real accountability. The Oversight Board is a Facebook-paid, Facebook-appointed body created by Facebook to launder its most politically sensitive decisions.
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This decision exposes the Oversight Board for what it is - a distraction from Facebook’s failures to take responsibility for its own platform. A PR stunt.
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Even if Trump is permanently banned, this decision does absolutely nothing to challenge Facebook’s systemic problems. This doesn’t change the algorithms. And it doesn’t change the “Trump effect” of dictators and extremists following his lead to use Facebook for evil.
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A reinstatement would be a green light for dictators everywhere: Already Narendra Modi in India, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Viktor Orban in Hungary and Rodrigo Duterte in The Philippines all use Facebook in pursuit of authoritarian aims.
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Trump is one bad actor. And this is a very expensive show trial. If Facebook was serious about content moderation, *it would employ more content moderators*. It would train & pay them properly.
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While Trump pedals the “Big Lie” about the Election, this is the bigger lie. That a Facebook-funded & appointed board is anything other than part of its PR machine. Please see through the spin & ask the bigger questions. Thank you for listening.
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