Mark Zuckerberg denies senator’s plea to remove Steve Bannon for threatening to behead Fauci and Wray

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calmly dismissed a suggestion from a Democratic senator on Tuesday to de-platform former Trump administration adviser Steve Bannon for threatening to behead Dr Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“No. … That’s not what our policies suggest that we should do,” Mr Zuckerberg said, after Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut asked whether Mr Bannon should be banned from Facebook for his comments.

Mr Blumenthal is one of several Democrats who sought to use Tuesday’s Senate hearing with Mr Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to advocate for stronger self-censoring among the tech giants to root out hate speech and politically violent rhetoric.

Mr Zuckerberg and Mr Dorsey appeared alongside Google CEO Sundar Pichai at a separate hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee in late October.

"How many times is Steve Bannon allowed to call for the murder of public officials before Facebook suspends his account?" Mr Blumenthal asked Mr Zuckerberg on Tuesday.

Mr Zuckerberg explained that while Facebook has a zero-tolerance policy for accounts that post content characterised by terrorist activity or child exploitation and removes such accounts permanently, the social media company does not immediately remove accounts that post content such as the video from Mr Bannon calling for US public officials’ heads on pikes.

Facebook purged its site of Mr Bannon’s video, and his account could be subject to permanent removal if he persists in posting content that violates Facebook’s rules against speech that may incite violence.