You may have already heard that on Wednesday Facebook’s oversight board upheld the site’s decision to suspend former President Donald Trump’s account, at least for the time being. That’s a noteworthy outcome in and of itself, with wide-ranging consequences for the way Trump communicates with his supporters and helps define the future of the GOP. But as Genesis Brand’s tech and politics reporter, I had my eye on the process as much as the outcome, and what it tells us about the state of Big Tech. Namely, that process shows that when there’s only the threat of regulation, tech companies will find ways to self-regulate that amount to little more than judicial theater.
The oversight board’s ruling was the latest chapter in a story that started in January. After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Trump’s account was suspended due to his posts that praised the attackers. Throwing the leader of the free world in “Facebook jail”