Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon spared Facebook ban after beheading comments
6 November 2020, 12:44
Mr Bannon said he would like to put Dr Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray’s ‘heads on pikes’ during a podcast.
Facebook has not followed Twitter in banning former Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon from its platform after he suggested America’s top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray should be beheaded.
Mr Bannon – who served as White House chief strategist and senior counsellor to the president from January to August 2017 – made the comments in his War Room: Pandemic talk show shared across several social networks.
“Second term kicks off with firing Wray, firing Fauci, no I actually want to go a step farther but the president is a kind-hearted man and a good man,” he said.
“I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England.
“I’d put the heads on pikes. I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats.
“You either get with the programme or you’re gone – time to stop playing games.”
Twitter removed an account belonging to Mr Bannon in response, but Facebook has only opted to remove the offending content.
It comes at a particularly testing time for social networks as they face pressure to deal with the deluge of posts and misinformation related to the election.
Facebook did not offer details as to why it has chosen not to remove Mr Bannon’s account.
“We removed these videos for violating our policy against violence and incitement,” a spokeswoman for the social network said.
YouTube has also only removed the video for now, implementing its three-strike policy before terminating an account.
Any strike temporarily disables uploading for at least a week, the Google-owned platform said.
“We’ve removed this video for violating our policy against inciting violence,” a YouTube spokesman said.
“We will continue to be vigilant as we enforce our policies in the post-election period.”
