Four in ten American users thought that Facebook should have blocked Trump sooner, reveal leaked internal documents

• Donald Trump was indefinitely banned from Facebook and Instagram on January 7 last year for praising people rioting at the US Capitol.
• Facebook's Oversight Board in June 2021 decided to uphold the ban and bar Trump from using the platforms for two years, till January 2023.
• While 28% thought that Facebook’s actions on Trump were delayed, 35% were against the social media platform’s actions on the US President.

Four in ten — or about 38% — of American Facebook users thought that the social media platform acted too late in locking 45th US President Donald Trump’s account during the Capitol violence of 2021, according to the YouGov report part of the Facebook Papers series.

Whistleblower Frances Haugen in 2021 had leaked internal documents of Facebook, now known as Meta, to raise awareness around the harmful effects of social media. The survey carried out by YouGov, with a sample size of 4,400 American nationals, was a part of this.

The report, Jan 6 Freedom of Expression (FoE) Survey, looked at the perception of the attack that took place on the United States Capitol on January 6 by a mob of supporters of then President Donald Trump. The survey’s data pool included people of different political inclinations, comprising 2,138 democrats, 909 independents and 1,353 republicans.

While 28% thought that Facebook’s actions on Trump were delayed, 35% were against the social media platform’s actions on the US President.

People’s political inclination did play a role in molding their opinion as well. Republicans thought that Facebook was attempting to censor Trump due to political pressure, whereas Democrats thought that the decision was simply taken to enforce content policy and reduce risk of violence.

Republican Donald Trump was indefinitely banned from Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram indefinitely on January 7, 2021, following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6. Facebook's Oversight Board in June 2021 decided to uphold the ban and bar Trump from using the platforms for two years, till January 2023.

“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols. We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year,” Nick Clegg, vice president of Global Affairs at Meta and former deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said in a statement released on June 4 last year.

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