Facebook's Supervisory Board Review Suspends Donald Trump's Account

Donald Trump. (Instagram/realdonaldtrump)

JAKARTA - A number of social media platforms have suspended Donald Trump's account. This has been triggered, since the incident of the mass attack of Trump supporters into the Captiol Hill Building in Washington DC last week.

Facebook, including social media, has blocked Donald Trump's account, including Instagram, until an indefinite time limit. Now the decision to suspend the account belonging to the 45th President of the United States (US) will be reviewed by the Independent Supervisory Board.

"I believe in our case. I firmly believe that anyone who has a reasonable mind to see the circumstances in which we took that decision and see our policies will agree," said Facebook Head of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, quoted by Reuters, Friday, January 22.

"But of course this is a decision that has shocked the world," he added. This is the first time the social media giant has blocked a president, prime minister or head of state.

Facebook did not request an expedited review so the supervisory board, which said it had accepted the case on Thursday, will have a maximum of 90 days to make a decision for Facebook to follow up on.

A spokesman for the supervisory board said it was likely that a case review would be faster than that. Trump's Facebook page administrators have the option to post a written statement opposing Facebook's decision.

Facebook has also asked its supervisory board to provide recommendations for when political leaders can or should be blocked. Facebook does not have to act on these recommendations, unlike the supervisory board's decision in the Trump case which is binding.

The supervisory board, which currently has 20 members, was formed by Facebook in response to criticism of its handling of problematic content.

"That's why we are here, not to leave this decision to the leadership of Facebook but to actually use the Supervisory Board to look at this in a principled way," said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, co-chair of the supervisory board who is also a former prime minister of Denmark.

Earlier, Facebook said it would suspend Trump's account, at least until the end of his term as US President and possibly indefinitely. Meanwhile, Twitter has permanently blocked Trump's account.