EDMONTON -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that former White House adviser Steve Bannon had not violated enough of the company's policies to justify suspending his account when he called for the beheading of two senior U.S. officials, according to a recording heard by Reuters.

Zuckerberg reportedly told an all-staff meeting that the company shared some of the concerns raised about Bannon鈥檚 behaviour on social media, including those voiced by president-elect Joe Biden鈥檚 campaign, but noted that Bannon had not violated enough policies to be kicked off the platform altogether.

"We have specific rules around how many times you need to violate certain policies before we will deactivate your account completely," Zuckerberg said, according to Reuters.

"While the offences here, I think, came close to crossing that line, they clearly did not cross the line."

Last week, Bannon took to social media to falsely claim that U.S. President Donald Trump had won the election, despite several key states still being too close to call, adding that Trump should fire Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

鈥淚'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. You either get with the program or you are gone,鈥� Bannon said in the video posted to his Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts.

Twitter and Facebook both removed the video in question. But Twitter took steps to permanently suspend Bannon鈥檚 account.

In a statement to Reuters, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said the company would take further action against Bannon's page "if there are additional violations."

Bannon鈥檚 spokespeople have said his comments were 鈥渕etaphorical鈥� and not meant to incite violence.

"Mr. Bannon did not, would not and has never called for violence of any kind," spokeswoman Alexandra Preate told Reuters.

Bannon, who played a role in developing Trump's "America First" policy, served as chief White House strategist until August 2017 when Trump abruptly fired him.鈥� 

- With files from Reuters