We’re Missing the Point in the Trump-Facebook Ban Story

A private court system looms.

If there’s one thing that social media loves, it’s talking about social media. It’s no surprise, then, that this week’s internal review at Facebook about whether Donald Trump’s account should be reinstated has chewed up hashtags and trends around the world. If you recall, social networks like Twitter and Facebook banned The Donald in the run-up and aftermath to the storming of the U.S. Capitol in early January. While Twitter — the former president’s preferred medium — has not wavered on its ban, Facebook has made several announcements over the last several months that it was actively reviewing his status. The hype tweets, promoted ads, and news releases over the course of this past week were so frequent it felt like Lebron’s publicist had a hand in it. (“Facebook is taking its talents to South Beach.”)

After all that, earlier today, Facebook announced that, no, Donald Trump was not coming back (well, at least for six months), which was, I suppose, news of a sort. The episode has certainly commanded the news cycle for a few days, and will likely generate quite a few thought pieces in the coming days. But I think the outcome of the decision is more or less irrelevant, and we’re focused on the wrong thing. The decision wasn’t what mattered, it’s whomade the decision, and how it has been presented that matters. If we look at those aspects more closely — and you had to see this coming — we’ll see something pretty troubling going on at Facebook…