The board found the former president’s posts during the Capitol riot “severely” violated Facebook’s rules and “encouraged and legitimised violence”.
“The board also found Facebook violated its own rules by imposing a suspension that was ‘indefinite’,” it said, in a series of tweets on Wednesday night.
“This penalty is not described in Facebook’s content policies.
“It has no clear criteria and gives Facebook total discretion on when to impose or lift it.”
Facebook was directed to review the matter and decide a new penalty within six months.
The panel’s initial 90-day deadline to come up with a decision was due to expire in April before the board revealed it would need more time to decide.
It cited the need to review more than 9000 comments submitted.
“We extended the public comments deadline for this case, receiving 9,000+ responses,” it said in a Twitter post.
“The board’s commitment to carefully reviewing all comments has extended the case timeline, in line with the Board’s bylaws. We will share more information soon.”
Facebook set up the oversight panel to act as the ultimate referee on content decisions, amid furious criticism about its inability to respond to a tide of misinformation, hate speech and other harmful content.
The board is empowered to make binding rulings on issues such as whether posts or ads violate the company’s rules.
The social media giant regularly takes down thousands of posts and accounts.
Since it was launched in October, the board has received some 300,000 appeals from users over content decisions but it’s prioritising cases that have the potential to affect many users around the world.
It has overturned decisions in five of the seven cases it has ruled on so far.
This content first appear on 9news