Donald Trump has appealed directly to Facebook’s ‘supreme court’ Oversight Board in a bid to rejoin the platform but a decision on whether to permanently ban the former president is expected to take at least two months.
Former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is a co-chair of the 20-member Oversight Board, told the UK’s Channel 4 News on Tuesday that the panel was currently looking over Trump’s case.
She said that despite ‘trying to do this case a little bit faster’, a decision by the panel was not likely for another two and a half months.
The news outlet reported that Trump had made a direct appeal to the Oversight Board to have his ban overturned.
Daily Mail reports that Trump had his Facebook and Instagram accounts suspended in the wake of the deadly riots at the US Capitol on January 6.
The social media giant last month said it was deferring the decision to permanently ban Trump to its seemingly-independent Oversight Board.
“We have decided that we are going to take this case,” Thorning-Schmidt said on Tuesday.
‘It’s a very high profile case but that is exactly why the Oversight Board was created in the first place.’
She added that they are inviting public feedback on the case for them to look at and they have ‘already received public comments in the thousands and thousands’.
‘One thing I think is quite good about how we deal with these things is not only does Facebook have a statement about why they did what they did. The user can also put in their statement about their opinion,’ she said.
‘A third thing that can happen is that we are open for public comments about this particular case. We’ve already received public comments in the thousands and thousands.’
The board was created last year to rule on thorny content issues, such as when posts constitute hate speech, or – in this case – if the major decision to ban a world leader was the right one.
Its ruling on Trump, which is its biggest case to date, will be binding and can’t be overturned by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Trump’s accounts will remain suspended until its decision is handed down.
