Facebook to announce decision on Trump ban

Facebook's independent oversight board will announce whether it will uphold or reverse a decision blocking former president Donald Trump from using the site.

This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

Facebook's independent oversight board will announce its decision this week on whether to uphold a ban on former president Donald Trump or allow him back on the platform.

Facebook blocked Trump's access after violent throngs of his supporters, egged on by his false claims of election fraud, launched a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

YouTube and Twitter also cut off Trump’s ability to post, and in Twitter's case the ban was permanent.

Facebook handed the case to the oversight board.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg created an independent panel after years of simmering criticism that he was not doing enough to limit harmful content.

The Facebook decision, set to be announced Wednesday morning, will be closely watched to see how the world's largest social media platform handles its highest-profile case to date on what sort of content is allowed on the site.

It could uphold the suspension or overturn it and it has been asked to make recommendations to the company on how it handles world leaders on the site.

In a sign that Trump might not soon change his inflammatory rhetoric over his election loss, he put out a press release Monday calling the results of the 2020 contest, "THE BIG LIE!"