Friend,

This surely won’t come as a big surprise, but the media have done a really poor job of explaining the Facebook Oversight Board’s decision on Donald Trump’s account.

The board punted the decision back to Facebook — in effect extending Trump’s suspension for at least another six months while Facebook investigates and clarifies its own policies.

But the board also provided a simple path for Trump to return to Facebook — a development that could easily come to pass. Since you’re an important member of Free Press’ movement who helped us get Trump kicked off social media in the first place, we want to make sure that it’s clear to you how this could go down:

• Facebook has shown great willingness to profit off of hate and lies throughout its history, and acted to suspend Trump only when public pressure made it impossible not to.
• Facebook is now obligated by the Oversight Board’s decision to clarify its policies within six months, and decide within that timeframe whether to reinstate access to Trump’s account.
• Facebook will be relentlessly bombarded with pressure and threats from conservative politicians and trolls who want Trump’s account reinstated.
• The Oversight Board will likely not play a role in the final decision.
• That means the ultimate decision on whether to allow Trump back will fall solely on Mark Zuckerberg and other corporate executives whose primary motivation is profit.

Our movement was instrumental in getting Trump kicked off of social media. And if we are going to convince Facebook to do the right thing now, we need everyone who helped us the first time around to stay close at our side.

Right now, you can sign our petition demanding that Facebook permanently ban Trump. You make a real difference with every Free Press petition you sign — but please remember that we will need your help throughout the next six months.

We've achieved amazing things this past year, and I know we can win this. But we can’t fool ourselves into thinking that our outrage and actions are any less important now than they were immediately after Jan. 6.

Thank you for everything you do for our movement.

In solidarity,

Candace and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net

P.S. Did you know that Free Press doesn’t take a single dollar from business, government or political parties? That means that it’s generous donations from people like you that make everything we do possible. Please consider donating today — every gift matters in our efforts to keep Facebook from giving Donald Trump his megaphone back.