A final ruling on whether to overturn Facebook's ban on former US President Donald Trump will take a bit longer than anticipated, an independent oversight board said on Friday, according to AFP . Critics of the social media company and even strong advocates of unfettered political discourse called on Facebook's oversight board to endorse the decision to boot Trump from the platform in the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. "The board's commitment to carefully reviewing all comments has extended the case timeline," a spokesperson told AFP . "The board will announce its decision on the case concerning former US President Trump's indefinite suspension from Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks." In January, Facebook referred its decision to indefinitely suspend Trump from the platform to the independent Oversight Board, a panel of experts and civic leaders from around the world that was established last year. Facebook banned Trump from the platform in the wake of the January 6 riots on the US Capitol, which Trump has been accused of inciting. Twitter also shut down Trump’s account and later approved a permanent ban on the former President. Twitter and Facebook were the first of many companies to take action against Trump, and were followed by Google which suspended Trump's YouTube channel , Reddit which banned some pro-Trump forums, and Snapchat , which permanently banned Trump’s on the day he left office. Conservatives on Capitol Hill and beyond have contended that moves by Facebook and Twitter to "deplatform" Trump demonstrate political bias and inhibit free speech. (Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)
