Donald Trump, the one-term ex-president who lost the 2020 election by 7 million votes and proceeded to incite a violent and deadly insurrection, will have his Facebook and Instagram accounts reinstated after losing them for what CEO Mark Zuckerberg one day after the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol said was the “use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.”
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, “will allow former President Donald Trump to return to Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks, the company announced Wednesday,” CNBC reports.
Trump’s attorneys recently sent Meta a letter urging the social media behemoth allow the former president, who currently is under several federal and state criminal investigations as he launches a third run for the White House, to return.
“As a general rule, we don’t want to get in the way of open, public and democratic debate on Meta’s platforms – especially in the context of elections in democratic societies like the United States,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, wrote in a blog post announcing the decision, CNBC adds. “The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying – the good, the bad and the ugly – so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box.”
At 8:36 PM on January 6, 2021, Facebook had publicly announced it was imposing a 24-hour block on then-President Donald Trump, following the deadly riot and insurrection on Capitol Hill. The following day Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media giant had banned Trump “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.”
But later that year in June, Facebook’s Oversight Board decided Trump’s suspension would be in place for just two years, starting in January of 2021, but also appeared to make clear the suspension would be lifted after that time.
“When the suspension is eventually lifted,” Facebook’s Oversight Board said at the time — making clear the suspension would be lifted “when,” and not “if” — “there will be a strict set of rapidly escalating sanctions that will be triggered if Mr. Trump commits further violations in future, up to and including permanent removal of his pages and accounts.”
This is a breaking news and developing story.