Former President Donald Trump will remain banned from Facebook for at least another six months, as the company’s oversight board today decided to keep him off the social media platform for now.

The Facebook Oversight Board agreed with the decision to deactivate Mr. Trump’s account in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots but gave the company six months to develop a decision on the fate of his account, saying an indefinite suspension was not appropriate. 

First Amendment litigator David Coale of Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann says that final decision could have a major impact on the political debate involving the regulation of social media companies. 

“Facebook, as a private business, can do pretty much whatever it wants to do with its service. The First Amendment only applies to ‘state action’ – government restraints on speech,” said Mr. Coale. 

“The real issue will be what political impact the decision will have on the debate about Section 230, part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, that pretty much took the government out of the business of regulating the actions of companies such as Facebook and Google. Are we still comfortable leaving this kind of decision with private business, or does the government need to set more concrete guidelines?”

For more information, please contact Sophia Reza at 800-559– 4534 or sophia@androvett.com.