Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a hearing Thursday that he will “honor” the potential decision by the company’s oversight board to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s Facebook account. The Facebook “Supreme Court” is packed with anti-Trump and progressive individuals.
Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) asked Zuckerberg if he would respect the Facebook oversight board’s decision to reinstate Trump’s Facebook account if the group, nicknamed the “Facebook Supreme Court,” were to rule in Trump’s favor.
“You created the Facebook oversight board as a way to help hold Facebook accountable; they are currently looking at Facebook’s decision to remove President Trump’s Facebook account,” Long asked. “If the oversight board decides that Facebook should have left President Trump’s account up, what will you do?”
Zuckerberg said, “Congressman, we will respect the decision of the oversight board, and if they tell us that former President Trump’s account should be reinstated, then we will honor that.”
Long then asked how Zuckerberg will ensure that the oversight, which is comprised of people across the world, how they will make their decision with respect to America’s tradition of free speech.
Zuckerberg responded, saying that the members were allegedly chosen due to their respect for free speech and to “balance” human rights and free expression.
Breitbart News’ Allum Bokhari noted that the first 20 members of the Facebook “Supreme Court comprise of anti-Trump and progressive figures.
Bokhari wrote:
… members of the Oversight Board include Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Prime Minister of Denmark for the left-wing Social Democrat party, Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei, a “human rights expert” who is part of George Soros’ “Open Society” network, Pamela Karlan, who worked in the civil rights division of President Obama’s Justice Department, and Evelyn Aswad, who served as director of human rights in Hillary Clinton’s State Department.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), one of Congress’s most vocal critics of big tech, condemned the Facebook oversight board in May 2020.
“This is how powerful @Facebook is, how much speech it controls, how much of our time & attention it claims: it now has a special censorship committee to decide what speech can stay & what should go. Facebook basically making the case it should be broken up,” he wrote.
This is how powerful @Facebook is, how much speech it controls, how much of our time & attention it claims: it now has a special censorship committee to decide what speech can stay & what should go. Facebook basically making the case it should be broken up https://t.co/EveWPZicib
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 6, 2020
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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