Facebook’s oversight board announced this week that it would temporarily uphold the company’s decision to remove former President Donald Trump from its social media platform.
As the Washington Examiner reported, some critics are wondering whether that conclusion was in any way influence by progressive billionaire financier George Soros.
“Threatens our democracy”
Under the terms of its decision, Facebook will be required to reconsider the status of Trump’s account in six months.
The quasi-independent panel includes 20 members and a RealClear Investigations report determined that at least 15 of those individuals are employed or previously worked for Soros-funded entities.
Among them is PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel, whose organization released a statement last month calling on the Biden administration to address the issue of so-called disinformation.
“Today PEN America, alongside a coalition of human rights, free speech, democracy, and technology organizations, sent a letter to the White House urging the Biden-Harris administration to create a Disinformation Defense and Free Expression Task Force to target the crisis of disinformation that threatens our democracy,” a statement read at the time.
That letter, along with those of other left-leaning groups, focused on the role of social media in the lead-up to a violent riot on Capitol Hill in January.
“My last visit”
Of course, it made no mention of social media’s influence in promoting Black Lives Matter protests over the course of last summer, some of which became the scene of violence and destruction.
Another board member is Nighat Dad, who has been affiliated with the Soros organization Open Societies and has a history of anti-Trump social media posts. In 2016, she tweeted: “God forbid if Trump becomes the president, this will be my last visit to US.”
A Columbia Law School professor who previously served as an aide to then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) is also a member of the oversight board.
For his part, long-time Facebook critic Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) blasted the board’s ruling during a podcast interview on Wednesday.
“This is a fake court set up by Facebook to allow Facebook to do whatever Facebook wants to do,” he said. “This is not surprising at all. This is what Facebook does all the time. This is what you can do with your monopoly because there is no accountability. … Facebook doesn’t care.”
The post Majority of Facebook oversight board members linked to Soros-funded groups: Report first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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