Meta Is Lifting Donald Trump's Ban From Facebook, Instagram After 2 Years

Meta announced Wednesday that it would reopen its social media platforms to Donald Trump, saying it would reinstate the former president's access to Facebook and Instagram accounts.

According to The New York Times, Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, said Trump will regain access to his accounts "in the coming weeks."

It noted that Trump's accounts collectively had hundreds of millions of followers. The former president reportedly had the most followed account on Facebook when he was banned.

Meta said it decided to reverse the bans on Trump as it had determined that the risk to public safety had "sufficiently receded" since January 2021.

The company went on to say it would put new guardrails in place to "deter repeat offenses" in the future.

Meta's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, noted that the public should be able to hear what the lawmakers are saying, whether good, bad, or ugly.

Clegg added that the public could make informed choices at the ballot box when public figures are available on social media platforms.

However, the Meta official said it does not mean there would be "no limits" to what people can post on the platform.

Donald Trump Facebook and Instagram Ban

In January 2021, Facebook's Oversight Board decided to keep Donald Trump off the social media platform "indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks" until there was a peaceful transition of power.

Clegg said at the time that those were decisions that they "cannot duck." However, misinformation experts and civil rights said that Trump's social media suspension in 2021 was "too little, too late."

Brian Friedberg, a senior researcher at the Harvard Shorenstein Center's Technology and Social Change Project, noted that it was exactly what they expected.

Tech platforms were initially reluctant to police Trump's posts despite consistently violating hate speech regulations.

Assistant professor of communication at Syracuse University and expert on social media, Jennifer M. Grygiel, said Trump's influence on social media spread propaganda and has gone unchecked.

Grygiel noted that it was a product of "four years of systematic propaganda," which started from the presidency. Aside from Facebook and Instagram, Trump was also banned on YouTube due to concerns over "ongoing potential for violence."

Twitter also banned Trump, with its former CEO Jack Dorsey saying that the ban was "a dangerous" move, which could result in "significant ramifications."

Donald Trump's Return on Social Media Platforms

In November, the new CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk, reversed the platform's ban on Donald Trump following a poll of his Twitter followers.

Musk also disbanded Twitter's Trust and Safety Council, a group of outside experts who consulted with the company on sensitive matters.

After the former president's account was allowed on the platform, his previous tweets became viewable, with the most recent one from January 8 2021 when he posted that he would not be attending President Joe Biden's inauguration.

The former president had 88.8 million Twitter followers when he was banned. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers criticized the reverse of Trump's ban on social media platforms.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky said the Capitol community is still "picking up the pieces" from the riot.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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