Facebook has removed a video interview of former US President, Donald Trump, and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, from the latter’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Lara Trump, who is married to the former President’s son, Eric, and recently joined Fox News as a contributor, had promoted an interview with Trump for her own online show “The Right View” on Instagram posts on Tuesday.
Shortly after the video went up on her Facebook and Instagram pages, it was pulled down.
Lara posted a screenshot of an email from Facebook that said her video with Trump had been removed, citing the ban on his accounts.
“We are reaching out to let you know that we removed content from Lara Trump’s Facebook Page that featured President Trump speaking,” the email read.
“In line with the block we placed on Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, further content posted in the voice of Donald Trump will be removed and result in additional limitations on the accounts.”
Responding to the ban, Lara via her Instagram account said, “And just like that, we are one step closer to Orwell’s 1984.”
Trump was suspended from Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram indefinitely on January 7, a day after a pro-Trump mob invaded the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, at the time cited the risk of ongoing violence for the ban of Trump.
Twitter banned Trump permanently on January 8, and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube also banned the former US President and has said it will reinstate his account when the risk of violence reduces.
Other internet companies have taken similar actions. Whether the ban on Donald Trump will ever be removed by Facebook or Instagram is to be decided by the company’s Oversight Board.
Facebook’s VP of Global Affairs and Communications, Nick Clegg, has said in a blog post in January that while Facebook believes the decision to ban Trump “was necessary and right,” the company also thinks it is important for the board to “reach an independent judgment on whether it should be upheld.”
This is serious.
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