Social media giant Meta announced Wednesday that former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts are being reinstated, over two years after he was suspended from the platform.
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) said Trump’s accounts will be reinstated
“in the coming weeks … with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.”
Clegg said on the company’s website that those guardrails will include
“heightened penalties for repeat offenses — penalties which will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol. In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation.”
The move comes after Facebook gave itself to re-evaluate its 2021 decision. Facebook claimed that it was banning Trump for a post and video addressed to protestors at the capital on January 6 that urged them to go home peacefully. However, Facebook determined that the post’s tone was too “sympathetic.” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s VP of Integrity said the team at Facebook believed the post
“contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed to “rein in big tech power over our speech” after Facebook announced the duration of Trump’s suspension in 2021. Additionally, Trump’s presidential campaign officially petitioned Meta to allow Trump back onto the platform earlier this month, writing in a letter dated Jan. 17th:
“We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse.”
The ban was initially slated to last 24 hours but was extended until the end of his term by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who said the
“risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great … therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
It was later revealed in the ‘Twitter Files’ that government officials and intelligence agencies have been encouraging social media platforms to censor and ban political rivals and people posting information that went contrary to the U.S. government’s official position and narrative. The information came to light after Elon Musk purchased Twitter.
About a year after leaving office, Trump launched his own social media site called ‘Truth Social.’
Editorial credit: Koshiro K / Shutterstock.com
