- In 2015, Facebook executives investigated whether Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslim immigration broke the company's rules, according to a bombshell new report from the New York Times.
- CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly asked COO Sheryl Sandberg and other senior execs whether his Facebook post on the matter violated the social network's rules — which could have earned him a ban from the platform.
- Afterwards, a group of executives, sometimes including Sheryl Sandberg, are said to have scrambled to figure out the answer. Ultimately, Trump was not banned from Facebook.
- Zuckerberg is a vocal advocate of immigration reform.
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Sheryl Sandberg and other Facebook execs reportedly investigated if they could ban Trump after Zuck was ‘appalled’ by his call for a Muslim ban (FB)
In 2015, Donald Trump posted to Facebook to call for a shutdown of Muslim immigration to the United States. Zuckerberg wanted to know if this was sufficient grounds to ban him from the social network, according to the New York Times.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg once asked senior executives whether Donald Trump had broken any of the social network's rules, according to a bombshell report from The New York Times — a move that could have resulted in Facebook banning the then-presidential candidate.
In 2015, Trump called for Muslims to be banned from entering the United States, making a Facebook post to that effect. In response, Zuckerberg — a vocal advocate of immigration reform, who the Times reports was "appalled" by Trump's remarks — reportedly asked top executives if the Facebook post had violated its terms of service.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, DC policy head Joel Kaplan, and then-head of communications Elliott Schrage —three very senior executives at the firm — then scrambled to investigate the matter, according to the report.
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The trio ultimately determined that Trump's remarks didn't break Facebook's rules, says the report, and his account remained active.
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The detail was disclosed in an exhaustive report from The New York Times, which details how Facebook executives attempted to deflect criticism as the company's scandals mounted over the last few year.
In a statement, Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told Business Insider:
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