Facebook to extend Trump ban pending review

Facebook’s ban on former President Trump will be extended pending a review by the platform’s independent oversight body.

“We believe our decision was necessary and right,” Nick Clegg, a Facebook vice president, wrote in a blog post Thursday. “Given its significance, we think it is important for the board to review it and reach an independent judgment on whether it should be upheld.”

Facebook’s Oversight Board, which started taking cases in October, will make a decision on the ban in the next 90 days.

Facebook made the decision to temporarily ban Trump on Jan. 7 after posts they deemed to have incited the deadly insurrection on Capitol Hill one day earlier.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time that the ban would last at least until President Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.