Zuckerberg says Facebook won’t ban Bannon for urging Fauci, Wray beheadings
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday said he won’t delete the account of former White House adviser Steve Bannon for suggesting putting the heads of infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray “on pikes.”
Twitter banned Bannon for the remark — made this month on his webcast “War Room” — but Facebook only removed the video.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told Zuckerberg at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that Bannon was calling for violence and should be de-platformed. But the tech titan pushed back.
“Steve Bannon in a Facebook Live video called for beheadings of Dr. Fauci and FBI Director Wray for not acting more favorably toward President Trump,” Blumenthal said. “How many times is Steve Bannon allowed to call for the murder of government officials before Facebook suspends his account?”
Zuckerberg said that “the content in question did violate our policies and we took it down. Having a content violation does not automatically mean your account gets taken down.”
The Facebook CEO said people who post terrorist content or child porn lose their accounts for a first offense, but that “for other things it’s multiple.” Zuckerberg reportedly told his staff last week that Bannon has not committed enough infractions to justify banishment.
“Will you commit to taking down that account, Steve Bannon’s account?” Blumenthal pressed.
“No, that’s not what our policies would suggest that we should do in this case,” Zuckerberg replied.
Bannon said in his controversial remark: “I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England. I’d put the heads on pikes, right? I’d put them up the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats, you either get with the program, or you’re gone.”
A Bannon spokeswoman told The Post on Tuesday that Bannon “did not, would not and has never called for violence of any kind” and that “Mr. Bannon’s commentary was clearly meant metaphorically.”
Bannon was Trump’s final campaign chairman during the 2016 election and followed him into the White House as chief strategist. Trump fired Bannon in August 2017 and the president publicly broke with “Sloppy Steve” in January 2018 for allegedly telling author Michael Wolff that Ivanka Trump was “dumb as a brick” and that Donald Trump Jr. and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner were “treasonous.”
It’s unclear if Trump and Bannon have spoken since their break, but Bannon remains close to many Trump allies who have sought to smooth over the relationship.