Facebook Oversight Board Co-Chair Defends Upholding Trump Ban: He’s the One Who Made ‘Inflammatory Posts’ While ‘Rioters Were Invading the Congress’

Michael McConnell, a member of Facebook’s oversight board and a former federal judge, appeared on Fox News Sunday to defend their decision to uphold former President Donald Trump’s ban.

Trump was banned in the wake of the January 6th riot, where a number of angry Trump supporters stormed the Capitol after the former president’s weeks of pushing baseless and conspiratorial claims about the 2020 election.

The decision from the Facebook Oversight Board criticized aspects of the decision to ban Trump, but upheld it for now, while saying, “Facebook must complete its review of this matter within six months of the date of this decision.”

McConnell started by noting to Chris Wallace Trump was making very incendiary statements while the riot was going on, “egging them on.”

“This is a plain violation of Facebook’s rules against praising dangerous individuals and organizations at a time of violence,” he said, adding that Trump is “subject to the same rules on Facebook as everyone else.”

But he also noted their criticism Facebook was not justified in taking Trump down “indefinitely.”

Wallace asked about the criticism that Facebook is “violating President Trump’s free speech.”

“The argument is that Facebook and Twitter and other platforms have become so big that they can in effect silence people in the digital age, and the argument is: yes, President Trump is able to speak, but it’s not a matter of freedom of speech, it’s a freedom of reach. How do you respond to that?”

McConnell responded that this is not a First Amendment issue and said, “It’s up to Congress to decide what the anti-trust laws are going to be.”

Wallace more directly pressed McConnell on another argument — namely the idea that they’re “acting on bias to very much hinder President Trump’s ability to run for reelection.”

McConnell responded:

There might be bias either way. Remember, Mr. Trump is the one who issued those inflammatory posts at the very time when rioters were invading the Congress and shutting down the constitutionally prescribed process for counting electoral votes. He issued those posts. He is responsible for doing that. He bears responsibility for his own situation. He put himself in this bed and he can sleep in it.

You can watch above, via Fox News Sunday.

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