Icon: enlarge
Mark Zuckerberg at a US Congress hearing: "Line not crossed"
Photo: ERIN SCOTT / REUTERS
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg turned to his company's workforce on Thursday evening.
According to matching media reports, he also commented on Facebook's handling of Steve Bannon's remarks that glorified violence.
The former Trump adviser had spoken in his podcast about the execution of FBI director Christopher Wray and the renowned immonologist Anthony Fauci, who is advising the US government on the corona crisis.
"I would impale their heads and put them on the sides of the White House," Bannon said on the podcast.
It also appeared on Facebook, but was later deleted.
Zuckerberg said that while Bannon's statements violated Facebook's rules, they weren't enough to delete Bannon's account.
There are special requirements for how often a user has to break the rules in order for an account to be completely deleted.
"The offenses here were close, but they did not cross this line," said Zuckerberg, according to a recording available to Reuters.
Bannon's official site is still online
Facebook had deleted several pages linked to Steve Bannon earlier this week.
The human rights organization "Avaaz" had previously informed Facebook of false posts about alleged election fraud on these pages.
The official website of Bannon with almost 180,000 subscribers is still online today.
Twitter decided last week to delete Bannon's account after his statements.
According to a Facebook spokesman, Facebook will also take further measures should further violations occur.
A spokeswoman for Steve Bannon said that his statements were only "meant metaphorically".
Bannon never called for violence.
Zuckerberg worried about Facebook critics in the Biden environment
Joe Biden had been critical of Facebook in the past and described Mark Zuckerberg as a "real problem".
However, Zuckerberg was not worried to his employees that Biden's election victory could lead to a tightened pace of the US government towards Facebook.
"Just because some express themselves more critically about us, does not automatically reflect the position of the entire administration," said Zuckerberg in response to a question from an employee about Facebook critics in the vicinity of Joe Biden.
Icon: The mirror
hpp / reuters