White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is not confident former President Donald Trump will âchange his stripesâ in time to be reinstated on Facebook after the platform announced it is suspending him for at least two years.
During a press briefing on Friday, a reporter asked Psaki if Facebookâs decision was a âreasonable consequence.â
Psaki explained it is a decision for Facebook to make, and the administrationâs view is any platform that is disseminating information has âa responsibility to crack down on disinformationâ and âfalse information.â
âAs we look at it, we learned a lot from President Trump, the former president, over the last couple of years about his behavior and how he uses these platforms,â she said.
Psaki continued, âIt feels pretty unlikely that the zebraâs going to change his stripes over the next two years. Weâll see.â
Watch part of the press briefing below:
The reporter then asked if the decision validates âwhat President Biden has repeatedly said about Mr. Trump which is that words matter?â
The press secretary responded, âI donât know that itâs a validation. I think the president isnât the only one who thinks that. Words do matter. Words do have an impact.â
She added, âWe saw the impact on January 6 of words on social media platforms, and weâve seen the impact of words as it relates to disinformation traveling around the vaccine, around election integrity. Of course, we think words matter.â
Facebookannounced in a blog post on Friday it would be âsuspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year.â
The former president responded to the decision in a statement, saying, âThey shouldnât be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win. Our Country canât take this abuse anymore!â
