The then US President’s Facebook account was blocked after his supporters stormed the Capitol.
(Photo: AP)
san francisco Two years after his ban, Donald Trump regained access to his accounts with millions of followers on Facebook and Instagram. The meta group, which owns the platform, announced this on Wednesday. Meta had suspended the former president for his role in the attack on the Capitol building in Washington.
In a blog post, Metas chief lobbyist Nick Clegg announced new barriers to prevent abuse of the platform. “The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying – the good, the bad, and the ugly – so they can make an informed decision at the ballot box,” Clegg wrote.
Clegg continued, “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t limits to what you can say on our platform. When there is a clear risk of harming the real world – a deliberately high bar for meta to intervene in public discourse – we act.”
Clegg announced that Trump’s accounts would be reactivated “in the coming weeks” and provided with “new guard rails to deter repeat offenders”. Trump’s further actions on the platform would be monitored. “If Mr. Trump posts further infringing content, it will be removed and he will be suspended for a period of one month to two years, depending on the severity of the violation,” Clegg said.
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Trump’s presence on Facebook could become important in the election campaign
Trump celebrated the announcement on his social media platform Truth Social: “Facebook, which has lost billions of dollars in value since your favorite president, me, got ‘deplatformed’, just announced they’re reinstating my account. Something like that should never happen again to an incumbent president or anyone else who does not deserve retribution,” he wrote.
Trump’s statements surrounding the attack on the Capitol by some of his supporters on January 6, 2021 also led to a permanent ban on his Twitter account. But his account was reinstated on November 19 by the platform’s new owner, Elon Musk. However, Trump has yet to tweet again.
With Truth Social, Trump has set up his own social network. However, Trump’s reach on Truth Social is not nearly as large as on the other platforms. He has just over 4.8 million followers on Truth Social, compared to nearly 88 million on Twitter and 34 million on Facebook.
Politicians from the Democratic Party around MP Adam Schiff had asked Meta in an open letter not to let Trump back on the platforms. “Trump has continued to post harmful campaign content on Truth Social that would likely violate Facebook policies, and we have every reason to believe he would bring similar conspiratorial rhetoric back to Facebook if given the chance,” it said it in the letter.
Presidential elections will be held again in the United States next year. Donald Trump had already announced that he wanted to run. Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can play an important role in the election campaign.
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