When asked why Facebook choose to make the unprecedented move to ban a sitting President from its platforms, Sandberg said,

“So why did we do it? We have clearly established principles that say you cannot call for violence. In this moment, we took down those posts that we thought may be calling for violence or were calling for violence, immediately.”

“But in this moment, the risk to our democracy was too big that we felt we had to take the unprecedented step of what is an indefinite ban and I’m glad we did.”

When asked if Facebook plans to lift the ban, Sandberg responded that the company has “no plans to lift it right now.

Adding that “At least through the transition we’ve been very clear. There’s obviously so much happening and this is such a big step, we will definitely let people know and be very transparent about any changes to that.”

Sandberg said the move shows that “not even a president is above the policies we have.”

These comments from Facebook COO Sandberg come after Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on January 7th that the company would ban President Donald Trump from posting on his account “indefinitely” at least until the end of his Presidential term.

In that January 7th announcement, the Facebook CEO lodged some serious accusations against President Trump. Such as accusing President Trump of condoning “rather than” condemning the events that took place at the Capitol building on January 6th. 

In a video address that Facebook took down, the President condemned the occupancy of the Capitol building and told protestors to “go home” in an attempt to deescalate the situation.

In President Trump’s video address, he also called for “peaceful” protesting and condemned violence. Trump said, “We have to have peace, we have to have law-and-order,” and “we don’t want anybody hurt.”