Former President Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram will be restored by Meta in the coming weeks, more than two years after he was suspended in the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol attack.
Meta took the significant step to prohibit Trump from posting on Facebook and Instagram a day after the January 6 attack, when his supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg stated in a blog post on Wednesday, January 25, that “Our determination is that the risk [to public safety] has sufficiently receded.”
“As such, we will be reinstating Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks. However, we are doing so with new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.”
Clegg also added that Trump could be suspended for up to two years at a time for violating platform policies in the future.
With the reactivation of his Facebook and Instagram accounts, Trump will regain access to his extensive and influential communication and fundraising platforms as he prepares for a potential third White House bid.
Following his Twitter unban, this decision comes months later. However, it’s unclear if Trump will return to the Meta platforms, as he has chosen to continue posting on his own social media platform, Truthsocial, bypassing Twitter. In a post on Truth Social, Trump acknowledged Meta’s decision to reverse the suspension of his account, stating that “such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution.”
Despite Twitter being Trump’s preferred platform, he has a substantial presence on Facebook and Instagram, with 34 million and 23 million followers respectively, ahead of his reinstatement. Previous Trump campaigns have praised the effectiveness of Facebook’s targeted advertising tools, having spent millions on Facebook ads.
ACLU Director Anthony Romero praised the move, calling it “the right call,” and emphasized the importance of allowing a wide range of political speech online, even if it may be offensive.