Watch: Facebook Oversight Board Co-Chair Rips Trump and Facebook

“He put himself in this bed and he can sleep in it.”

Niall Carson/PA Wire via ZUMA Press

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Facebook’s January decision to ban Donald Trump left many people who dislike Trump and the social media giant feeling like they had to pick sides.

There’s no need for that. That’s one takeaway from comments on Sunday by Michael McConnell, a Stanford University law professor who is co-chair of Facebook’s Oversight Board. Appearing on Fox News, McConnell faulted Facebook for its failure to set out clear rules governing content, while also batting aside claims that the company treated Trump unfairly.

“Trump is the one who issued those inflammatory posts at the very time when rioters were invading the Congress and shutting down the constitutionally prescribed process for counting electoral votes,” McConnell told Fox’s Chris Wallace. “He issued those posts. He is responsible for doing that. He bears responsibility for his own situation. He put himself in this bed and he can sleep in it.”

McConnell, a former federal appeals court judge nominated by President George W. Bush, appeared on Fox to defend the board’s May 5 decision to extend Facebook’s ban on Trump while recommending that the company itself, not the board, review the question again within six months. The board said that Trump’s January 6 posts complimenting rioters “severely violated” Facebook’s rules against praise for people engaged in violence and that his lies about election fraud “created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible.”

McConnell said Facebook’s rules governing content are a mess. “We gave them a certain amount of time to get their house in order,” he said. “They needed some time because their rules are a shambles. They are not transparent. They are unclear. They are internally inconsistent.”

But he rejected claims by Trump and many of his supporters that a private company barring Trump from posting violates his right to free speech. “He has no First Amendment rights” on the platform, McConnell said. “He’s customer. Facebook is not a government, and he is not a citizen of Facebook.”

“No judge in the country would rule” in Trump’s favor, McConnell said.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate