After Bannon Suggests Beheading Fauci, Zuckerberg Says He Hasn't 'Crossed the Line' Enough to Be Suspended

Steve Bannon's Facebook page isn't going anywhere. On Thursday, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said that the former White House Chief Strategist's account will not be suspended since he did not directly violate any of the social network's policies. Bannon shared a video last week on social media where he mentioned beheading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"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."

The video was part of his podcast War Room: Pandemic. Facebook removed the video, but kept up his Facebook page. Twitter, however, banned Bannon shortly after the video was live.

Bannon said in his podcast last week that Dr. Fauci should be beheaded, insinuating that Fauci had been disloyal to president Donald Trump. Bannon served as White House Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President under Trump from January 2017 until August 2017.

"Second term kicks off with firing Wray, firing Fauci. Now I actually want to go a step farther but I realize the president is a kind-hearted man and a good man," Bannon at the time, referring to Fauci along with FBI director Christopher Wray.

"I'd actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I'd put the heads on pikes, right, I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats," he continued, adding: "You either get with the program or you're gone, time to stop playing games."

Bannon also likened the American Revolution to the Civil War. "That's how you won the revolution. No one wants to talk about it," he told his cohost Jack Maxey. "The revolution wasn't some sort of garden party, right? It was a civil war. It was a civil war."

On Wednesday, Dr. Fauci responded to the comments made by Bannon during an appearance on Australian TV news program The 7:30 Report.

"It's obviously been very stressful. I mean, to deny that would be to deny reality," Dr. Fauci said via The Hill. "When you have public figures like Bannon calling for your beheading, that's really kind of unusual, I think."

He added: "That's not the kind of thing you think about when you're going through medical school to become a physician."

Updated 11/12/2020 5:40 p.m. EST: This article has been updated to provide further context.