Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly defended not suspending Stephen Bannon from the platform after the former White House strategist suggested FBI Director Christopher Wray and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, should be beheaded.
During a meeting with staff on Thursday, Zuckerberg said Bannon didn't violate enough Facebook policies to earn a suspension, Reuters reports.
"We have specific rules around how many times you need to violate certain policies before we will deactivate your account completely," Zuckerberg reportedly said. "While the offenses here, I think, came close to crossing that line, they clearly did not cross the line."
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In a recent episode of his web show, Bannon suggested Fauci and Wray should be beheaded, recommending President Trump fire them before adding he would like to "put the heads on pikes" as a "warning to federal bureaucrats." A spokesperson for Bannon told Reuters that his comments were "clearly meant metaphorically" and that he "would not and has never called for violence of any kind."
In addition to taking down the video of Bannon's comments, Facebook also recently removed a network of pages linked to Bannon that were pushing false election claims, Reuters notes. After the beheading remarks, Twitter permanently suspended the account of Bannon's show. Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told Reuters that Bannon's page would be subject to further action "if there are additional violations."
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