Facebook Removes Donald Trump Interview Video

Conservatives in the United States have reacted angrily after Facebook removed an interview with former President Donald Trump on his daughter-in-law’s Facebook page.

Lara Trump is married to Trump’s son, Eric, and on Wednesday she had promoted an interview on Facebook and Instagram with the former president for her show ‘The Right View.’

But Facebook intervened and removed the interview, because content posted “in the voice of Donald Trump” is not allowed while he remains banned from the platform.

Trump ban

Lara Trump posted this screenshot of an email from a Facebook staff staffer called Katelyn.

“Hi folks, we are reaching out to let you know that we removed content fro Lara Trump’s Facebook Page that featured President Trump speaking. In line with the block 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 account.”

It is understood that Facebook is still maintaining its ban on campaign accounts and other Trump surrogates, but news organisations are allowed to post content featuring Trump’s voice.

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone told USA Today that the video was not permitted on Facebook and Instagram because of the former president’s indefinite suspension after the deadly Capitol riot.

Facebook’s decision to remove the Trump interview from the Page of his daughter-in-law prompted an immediate reaction from his supporters.

Lara Trump reportedly said the US is “one step closer to Orwell’s 1984” and Eric Trump slammed the move as “so horrible.”

And Republican Senator Lindsey Graham blamed the “liberals running Big Tech” for the decision and renewed his call to repeal Section 230.

It ha been reported that Lara Trump eventually posted the full interview on the video sharing site Rumble.

Attempted insurrection

Donald Trump was widely condemned for his role in inciting a mob of his supporters to storm the US Capitol building on Wednesday 6 January, which resulted in the deaths of five people (including one police officer who was beaten to death).

Facebook immediately banned Trump for 24 hours, but as the full scale of the attempted insurrection became clear, it then suspended his accounts indefinitely.

YouTube and Twitter also initially banned him for a limited period of time, but Twitter then also banned Trump permanently.

YouTube has also suspended Trump’s account indefinitely.

On 21 January Facebook referred its decision to indefinitely suspend Trump’s accounts to its independent oversight board.

In February it was confirmed that the ‘indefinite’ ban of former US President Donald Trump on Facebook and Instagram is being appealed at the highest level, and the board would make its own ruling on the matter.