Washington, D.C. – Today, the Facebook Oversight Board announced they would uphold Facebook’s ban on Trump, but left it up to Facebook to decide if it’s a permanent ban in six months. This comes as racialized and xenophobic disinformation continues to thrive on Facebook. 

Juanita Monsalve, Senior Marketing and Creative Director of United We Dream, said:

“The decision by the Facebook Oversight Board to uphold Trump’s ban was the right one, however it does nothing to address how Facebook allows racialized disinformation to thrive on their platform. It took too long to hold Trump accountable for his dangerous white supremacist propaganda, and the unfortunate reality is that Facebook’s algorithm still allows similar dangerous disinformation from other users to proliferate. More needs to be done by Facebook to stop the spread of racialized disinformation on their platform. Facebook must stop passing the ball, take responsibility, and take systemic action to protect its users. 

Racialized disinformation on platforms like Facebook disproportionately impacts Black and brown people, with bad actors working to spread racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic and anti-Black views. In recent months, anti-immigrant disinformation pushing a false narrative about migrants seeking asylum at our southern border has thrived on Facebook. This type of racialized disinformation is dangerous and has a real-world impact on the lives of Black and brown immigrants. Platforms like Facebook have a responsibility to – and must do more to – address the same racism and xenophobia that led to Trump’s ban in the first place.”