Mark Zuckerberg says Steve Bannon's Facebook account was not suspended over his Fauci beheading comments because it 'did not cross the line'
Mark Zuckerberg told an all-staff meeting on Thursday that former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon had not violated enough of the company's policies to justify his suspension, according to a recording heard by Reuters.
'We have specific rules around how many times you need to violate certain policies before we will deactivate your account completely,' Zuckerberg said.
'While the offenses here, I think, came close to crossing that line, they clearly did not cross the line.'
Bannon suggested in a video last week that FBI Director Christopher Wray and government infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci should be beheaded, saying they had been disloyal to U.S. President Donald Trump, who last week lost his re-election bid.
Steve Bannon on November 5 used his podcast to call for Fauci and Wray's beheading
Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO, said that Bannon's remarks did not 'cross the line'
'I'd actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England,' said Bannon.
'I'd put the heads on pikes. I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats.'
Facebook removed the video but left up Bannon's page.
The company had not previously answered questions about those actions and did not immediately respond to a Reuters request about Zuckerberg's comments.
Twitter banned Bannon last week over the same content.
Fauci told Australian television in an interview aired on Thursday that he found the remarks 'really kind of unusual'.
The 79-year-old has said that Bannon's comments were 'really kind of unusual'
'It's obviously been very stressful. I mean, to deny that would be to deny reality,' said Fauci.
'When you have public figures like Bannon calling for your beheading, that's really kind of unusual, I think.
'That's not the kind of thing you think about when you're going through medical school to become a physician.'
Zuckerberg spoke on the issue at a weekly forum with Facebook employees where he is sometimes asked to defend content and policy decisions, like the question on Thursday from a staff member asking why Bannon had not been banned.
Arrested in August, Bannon has pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors to the $25 million 'We Build the Wall' campaign.
Bannon has dismissed the charges as politically motivated.
Amid the fallout from his 'beheading' comments, Bannon's legal team announced they were quitting.
As Trump's chief White House strategist, Bannon helped articulate Trump's 'America First' policy.
Trump fired him in August 2017, ending Bannon's turbulent tenure.
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