A former Facebook safety worker says the platform's two-year ban on Trump after January 6th went too far, even though pulling him offline in the heat of the moment was the right call.

• Facebook had dozens of safety settings meant to limit viral, inflammatory content, but most had been switched off by January 5th, leaving the platform barely guarded when the Capitol riot broke out the next day.
• Trump was removed because he had chances to tell rioters to stand down and didn't, which the former employee says justified an immediate, short-term cutoff.
• She argues permanent or multi-year bans go too far, favoring short timeouts that can be extended if someone keeps stirring up violence, rather than locking people out for years.
• She draws a line between banning calls for violence (fair game for platforms to shut down) and banning uncomfortable or unpopular opinions, which she thinks should stay up so people can challenge and debate them.
• Content moderation by AI is described as largely ineffective, meaning platforms are mostly reacting case-by-case rather than systematically catching problems.

Outlook: As political pressure over platform censorship keeps growing, expect more scrutiny of how and how long tech companies suspend political figures, with calls for shorter, more flexible timeouts instead of years-long bans.