Four months after his account was suspended, will former US President Donald Trump once again be able to post on Facebook?
The supervisory board of the social media giant is due to vote on this thorny subject on Wednesday and make a decision that testifies to the immense political power of the dominant platforms.
Expected around 3 p.m. in Paris, the decision will undoubtedly be the most important announcement of this body since it took office.
"The board's reasoning may well help shape how to treat political leaders and other figures in the future," said Elizabeth Renieris, director of the technology ethics division at Notre Dame University.
Facebook banned the former US president from its platform on January 7, the day after the Capitol invasion in Washington, by a crowd of its supporters, during the certification of the victory of Joe Biden in the election of November 2020 The Californian group believes that the Republican billionaire broke his rules on incitement to violence, especially in a video where he expressed his support for the rioters.
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Social network boss Mark Zuckerberg said Mr. Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts were blocked "until further notice."
At the end of January, Facebook turned to its supervisory board to decide this matter definitively.
Currently composed of 20 international members, including journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and former politicians, at the beginning of the year it delivered its first (binding) verdicts and issued a series of recommendations ( non-binding).
In the case of Donald Trump, if the Council of Elders cancels the suspension, Facebook will have seven days to restore him to his account.
Trump can speak through other media
Whatever the final decision, it will be widely criticized. Fans of the billionaire accuse Facebook of censorship. But private companies are free to set their own rules of moderation. "Donald Trump can go on Fox News, he has many other ways of expressing himself," notes Daniel Kreiss, professor at the University of North Carolina. Supporters of maintaining the status quo consider, for their part, that the suspension of the billionaire's account should have taken place much earlier.
Twitter - his network of choice with nearly 89 million subscribers - has suspended his account permanently and irrevocably.
But Jack Dorsey, the founder of the tweet network, had nonetheless lamented a "failure to promote healthy conversation," which set a "dangerous" precedent for the power held by big business.
The former head of state has found refuge on the openly conservative and conspiratorial Gab network, where he is followed by 2 million people and continues to claim without proof that the election of Joe Biden was rigged.
Donald Trump's digital ostracization has been widely welcomed by elected Democrats and American civil society.
In Europe, however, it has drawn criticism from associations and leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who are concerned about the power of tech companies over free speech.