Nick Clegg, Facebook’s VP of Global Affairs and a former Deputy Prime Minister of the U.K. (2010-2015), explains on the Facebook blog that imposing a permanent ban on President Donald Trump is too harsh a penalty, and that after much soul-searching, Facebook has graciously reduced his sentence to two years, counting from Jan 7, 2021: “Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year.”
He reports what will then happen: “At the end of this period, we will look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded. We will evaluate external factors, including instances of violence, restrictions on peaceful assembly and other markers of civil unrest. If we determine that there is still a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a set period of time and continue to re-evaluate until that risk has receded.”
