New York
CNN
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Facebook parent is dead He said On Wednesday, she will restore former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks, after just over two years comment it In the aftermath of the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
“Our design is that risk [to public safety] Nick Clegg, Meta’s Head of Global Affairs, said in a blog post. And as such, we will restore Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks. However, we are doing this by using new guardrails to deter repeat offences.”
With his Facebook and Instagram accounts reactivated, so will Trump again to reach to massive, powerful communications and fundraising platforms as he ramps up his third bid for the White House.
The decision that follows a Similar move By Twitter, it could also change the landscape of how a long list of small online platforms handle Trump accounts.
It was not immediately clear if Trump would seize the opportunity to return to the meta platforms. Trump’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a post on his own platform, Truth Social, Trump acknowledged Meta’s decision to undo his account suspension and said “Such a thing should never happen again to a sitting president, or anyone else who doesn’t deserve retaliation.”
Twitter reinstated Trump’s account in November after it was taken over by billionaire Elon Musk, but the former president has yet to resume tweeting, choosing instead to stay on Truth Social.
But the Trump campaign earlier this month sent a letter to Meta asking the company to unblock his Facebook account, a source familiar with the letter told CNN, making his return more likely. Although Twitter has always been Trump’s platform of choice, he had a massive reach on Facebook and Instagram — 34 million followers and 23 million followers, respectively, before he was reinstated. Previous Trump campaigns have praised the effectiveness of Facebook’s targeted advertising tools and have spent millions running Facebook ads.
The company made the historic decision to block Trump from posting on Facebook and Instagram the day after the January 6 attack, in which his supporters stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Several other platforms have done the same in quick succession, but Facebook has been clear that it plans to revisit the decision at a later date. After Facebook’s independent oversight board Recommended For the company to clarify what was initially an indefinite suspension, Facebook said The former president will remain restricted from the platform until at least January 7, 2023.
meta earlier this month It was considering whether to restore Trump’s accounts with the help of an internal working group specially made up of leaders from different parts of the organization, a person familiar with the deliberations told CNN. The group included representatives from the company’s public policy, communications, content policy, and safety and integrity teams, and was led by Clegg, who previously served as Britain’s deputy prime minister.
The company said in June 2021 that it would “look to experts to assess whether the risk to public safety has receded” in January 2023 to make a decision on the former president’s account. “If we determine that there remains a serious risk to public safety, we will extend the restriction for a specified period of time and will continue to reassess until that risk has receded,” Clegg, then Meta’s vice president of global affairs, said in a statement at the time.
Clegg said in his letter Wednesday that the company believes “the public should be able to hear what politicians have to say — the good, the bad and the ugly — so they can make informed decisions at the ballot box.” But he said, “It doesn’t mean there are no limits to what people can say on our platform.”
In light of his past violations, Trump will now face “heavier penalties for repeat offences,” Clegg said, adding that the policy will also apply to other public figures who have their accounts reinstated after suspensions related to civil unrest.
“Should Mr. Trump publish further infringing content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the infringement,” Clegg said. However, the possibility of permanent removal of Trump accounts – which Clegg had previously referred to It could be the result of future breaches if his account is restored – he no longer appears on the table.
– CNN’s Donnie O’Sullivan and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.