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Former President Trump will not be allowed back on Facebook for at least two years, according to the company’s Friday announcement that also included new enforcement protocol. Meanwhile, FBI Director Christopher Wray compared the increasing ransomware hacks to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. And Facebook was hit with new antitrust probes abroad from the European Union and the United Kingdom.
CHECK BACK IN TWO YEARS: Facebook announced Friday that it is suspending former President Trump until Jan. 7, 2023, a full two years after he was first barred from the platform.
After that date, Facebook will evaluate whether the “risk to public safety” of restoring Trump’s account has abated.
If the suspension is then lifted, Trump will be subject to a “strict” set of sanctions for future policy violations, Facebook said.
“We know that any penalty we apply — or choose not to apply — will be controversial,” Facebook’s Nick Clegg said in a blog post. “We know today’s decision will be criticized by many people on opposing sides of the political divide — but our job is to make a decision in as proportionate, fair and transparent a way as possible, in keeping with the instruction given to us by the Oversight Board.”
The suspension is being made under new enforcement protocols announced Friday in response to the company’s independent Oversight Board ruling that the initial indefinite suspension was not appropriate.
What’s changing: Facebook also announced Friday that it will be providing more clarity about its newsworthiness policy, which allows posts that would otherwise violate platform policy to stay on the site “if it’s newsworthy and if keeping it visible is in the public interest.” The platform claims that, moving forward, it will no longer apply the newsworthiness standard differently to politicians.
The platform is also publicly publishing its strike system that it uses to determine the severity of punishment that can be doled out to successive infringements of Facebook policies.
Trump’s take: Trump in a statement called the decision “an insult” to Americans who voted for him while repeating his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
“They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win,” the former president said. “Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore!”
And Psaki’s: White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday suggested it is unlikely Trump will change his behavior to warrant reinstatement on Facebook after the platform suspended him for two years.
“As we look at it, we learned a lot from President Trump, the former president, over the last couple of years about his behavior and how he uses these platforms,” Psaki said at a White House briefing.
“Feels pretty unlikely that the zebra’s going to change his stripes over the next two years. We’ll see,” she added.
IT’S GETTING SERIOUS: FBI Director Christopher Wray is compared the increasing ransomware hacks on critical U.S. companies to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“There are a lot of parallels, there’s a lot of importance, and a lot of focus by us on disruption and prevention,” Wray told The Wall Street Journal in an article published Friday. “There’s a shared responsibility, not just across government agencies but across the private sector and even the average American.”
Wray told the Journal that his agency is investigating around 100 types of ransomware, pointing to Russia as the origin for many of the attacks.
Wray’s comments came in the wake of multiple high-profile ransomware attacks, including one earlier this week on JBS USA, the largest supplier of beef in the nation, which forced all its U.S. facilities to shut down for a day.
Read more about the ransomware concerns here.
TO UNDERLINE THE PROBLEM: Cox Media Group, which owns television and radio stations in 20 media markets around the U.S., was the victim of a ransomware attack Thursday, according to several reports.
TV and radio streams for stations across the country were taken offline Thursday, according to trade publication Inside Radio, TV news gossip site FTVLive and computer security site The Record.
Reportedly, a number of the sites were back up and running as of Friday, but a check of several websites of the company radio stations Friday morning revealed streams that were not working.
Media spokespeople for Cox Media Group did not immediately respond to questions from The Hill about the issue.
Read more about the new attack here.
HERE WE GO AGAIN: The European Union and the United Kingdom on Friday hit Facebook with new antitrust probes over the platform’s use of data from advertisers.
The European Commission said in a statement that it was looking into whether Facebook violated competition rules by using data gathered from advertisers to compete with them in markets where Facebook is active — particularly classified ads.
The investigation is also probing whether the platform ties its “Facebook Marketplace” service to its social network in violation of EU competition rules.
Separately, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it will probe whether Facebook has gained an unfair advantage over competitors in services for online classified ads and online dating through how it gathers and uses data from digital advertising services.
Lighter click: There’s just something in our eye…
An op-ed to chew on: DARPA pioneered the internet — its model can change how our future unfolds
NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
Biden has quietly deployed an app for asylum seekers. Privacy experts are worried (LA Times / Molly O’Toole)
As offices open back up, not all tech companies are sold on a remote future (The Washington Post / Heather Kelly and Rachel Lerman)
India’s social media crackdown could go global (Protocol / Ben Brody)