Zuckerberg defends decision to not suspend Bannon after Twitter move: report

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday defended his decision not to remove Steve Bannon from the platform following his suspension from Twitter.

At an all-staff meeting, Zuckerberg said that Bannon was not removed after calling for the beheading of two U.S. officials because he had not violated enough of the company’s policies, according to a recording of the meeting heard by Reuters.

“We have specific rules around how many times you need to violate certain policies before we will deactivate your account completely,” Zuckerberg said, according to the news outlet. “While the offenses here, I think, came close to crossing that line, they clearly did not cross the line.”

In a video posted to his social media, Bannon called for FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci’s heads to be on pikes.

After the video, Twitter suspended Bannon’s account over violating the platform’s policy on the “glorification of violence.” The video was removed from Facebook, but his page is still active. 

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters that the company would take additional action against Bannon “if there are additional violations.” 

Alexandra Preate, a spokesperson for Bannon, told Reuters that his comments were “clearly meant metaphorically.” 

“Mr. Bannon did not, would not and has never called for violence of any kind,” Preate said. 

Meanwhile, Facebook removed seven pages linked to Bannon that were spreading misinformation about voter fraud. A company spokesperson said at the time that the accounts were “using inauthentic behavior tactics to artificially boost how many people saw their content.”