Facebook has removed an interview between Donald Trump and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, from the latter’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, with the social-media giant citing its suspension of the former president.
On Jan. 7, the day after a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol, Facebook said it was suspending Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely. CEO Mark Zuckerberg cited the risk of ongoing violence for the decision. Twitter banned Trump permanently on Jan. 8, and other internet companies have taken similar actions to “deplatform” Trump.
Lara Trump, who is married to Eric Trump, on Tuesday had announced that Donald Trump would be joining her online news show “The Right View” (which was previously produced by the Trump 2020 campaign) that evening.
But shortly after the episode went up on her Facebook and Instagram pages, the video was pulled down. Lara Trump posted messages her team evidently received from the company explaining the removals.
“We are reaching out to let you know that we removed content from Lara Trump’s Facebook Page that featured President Trump speaking,” one of the messages read. “In line with the block we placed on Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, further content posted in the voice of Donald Trump will be removed and result in additional limitations on the accounts.”
According to the description of the interview on Lara Trump’s The Right View site, in the 18-minute video the ex-president discusses “social media censorship, China, Joe Biden, the FAKE NEWS, and a potential 2024 run!” The interview is available on upstart video platform Rumble, which became popular among Trump supporters after the election; as of Wednesday afternoon, it had more than 320,000 views.
Meanwhile, Lara Trump has joined Fox News as a contributor even as she is considering launching a run for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina.
The question of whether Donald Trump will ever be allowed back on Facebook or Instagram is to be decided by the company’s Oversight Board. In a January blog post, Nick Clegg, Facebook’s VP of global affairs and communications, said that while Facebook believes the decision to block Trump “was necessary and right,” the company also thinks it is important for the board to “reach an independent judgment on whether it should be upheld.” Clegg noted that, under the Oversight Board’s charter, the decisions it makes are binding and, allegedly, cannot be overruled by Zuckerberg “or anyone else at Facebook.”
A review of more than 6,000 of Trump’s posts on Facebook from 2020 by progressive watchdog group Media Matters released in February 2021 found that more than one-fourth of them included lies about the 2020 election, COVID-19 misinformation or “extreme rhetoric about his critics.”
