White House says Trump ‘unlikely to change his stripes’ after Facebook ban

 (Independent)
(Independent)
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Even though Facebook announced on Friday it was extending its ban on Donald Trump’s account until 2023, the White House says it’s unlikely the former president will change his ways.

“It feels pretty unlikely that the zebra is going to change his stripes over the next two years,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Friday at a press briefing, adding, “Our view continues to be, every platform, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, any other platform that is disseminating info to millions of Americans, has a responsibility to crack down in disinformation, has a responsibility to crack down on false information, whether it’s about the election or even about the vaccine.”

Ms Psaki implied that the former president’s conduct on the social network, where he frequently spread lies about the election and threatened his opponents, helped contribute to the 6 January riots at the Capitol.

“We learned a lot from the former president over the last couple years, about his behaviour and how he uses these platforms,” she said, noting, “We saw the impact on January 6 of words on social media platforms, and we’ve seen the impact of words as it relates to disinformation traveling around the vaccine, around election integrity.”