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Facebook’s (FB) supervisory board will decide in the coming weeks whether former President Donald Trump should regain access to the platform or face a permanent ban.
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates – whom Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg considers a mentor – weighed in on the impending move on Wednesday, telling Yahoo Finance that a permanent ban on Trump “would be a disgrace” and would be an “extreme measure”.
He warned that such a move would cause “polarization” if users with different political views split between various social networks.
“I don’t think banning someone who actually got a good number of votes – much less than a majority – but I don’t think kicking him off forever would be that good,” Gates said, referring to Trump, whose Facebook account has more than 35 million followers.
Facebook indefinitely suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts on January 7, the day after Trump supporters attacked the Capitol. Twitter (TWTR) permanently banned Trump on January 8.
‘An extreme measure’
Gates pointed to the more moderate approach taken by Facebook before the suspension, in which the company characterized the posts as problematic; and he noted that Trump’s future speech may not require dramatic action, as his words may have less impact as a former president.
“If he spreads lies about the integrity of the election, does it have to be labeled? Is it actually less important than it was in the past to cause problems in the future? ” says Gates, former CEO of Microsoft (MSFT) and author of a new book called “How to Avoid Climate Disaster”.
“But it would be a bit of a shame if they had to use such an extreme measure,” he adds.
Gates, who shuns political endorsements, has sharply criticized Trump’s handling of the coronavirus response and his decision last April to halt funding for the World Health Organization. The most notable confrontation between Gates and Washington DC came in 1998, when he rejected the need to regulate the software industry during testimony in the Senate.
There was considerable interest in whether Facebook should ban Trump permanently, garnering 9,000 comments during a public comment period. Supporters of a permanent ban include former first lady Michelle Obama and former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos; while skeptics of the potential move include German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Facebook sent the decision last month to its new supervisory board, a panel of judges made up of experts and public figures from around the world. The council had 90 days to vote on the ban.
The supervisory board will steer Zuckerberg away from the content moderation choices made by the company, Gates said, acknowledging that he had previously suggested the idea of such a board to Zuckerberg.
“Get it out of ‘Okay, that’s what Mark thinks’ – rather, they’re eminent thinkers and in every country they can reflect the cultural values of that country,” Gates says. “So you bring them with a sense of responsibility there.”
If Facebook bans Trump, it could lead his followers to other social media sites, fracturing the online debate between groups of people with similar political positions, Gates said.
“There are people who want to see debates around [Trump’s] “Says Gates.” Divide the digital world into, OK, here is this site that is for part or part of a part, and here is another – that kind of bias is probably not a good thing. “
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