Trump still blocked from Facebook — for now

Former President Donald Trump’s Facebook account should remain suspended, the company’s oversight board announced Wednesday while leaving the door open to his possible return down the line.

The decision comes nearly four months after Facebook suspended Trump’s account over fears he might incite additional violence following the Jan. 6. attack on the Capitol by his supporters. Facebook has said the board’s decision would be binding.

The board upheld Facebook's decision to suspend Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, but it criticized the social network for issuing an indefinitive suspension and ordered it to revisit the decision within six months.

"Within six months of this decision, Facebook must reexamine the arbitrary penalty it imposed on January 7 and decide the appropriate penalty," the board said in its ruling.

The decision has potentially huge implications for American politics, Trump's future in the 2024 elections and the balance of power between world leaders and the U.S.-based social media giant.

The verdict comes after Democratic officials, civil rights leaders and other advocates spent years calling on Facebook to crack down on posts by Trump they argued blatantly violated its policies against harassment, bullying, hate speech and rhetoric that incites violence. Conservatives tech critics, meanwhile, have railed against social media companies’ takedowns of Trump’s accounts as an affront to free speech online and evidence of an anti-GOP bias among Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook and Twitter.