Within the “coming weeks” Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is set to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. This news comes after years of fighting the ban with Trump’s legal team and supporters. It is expected that the reinstated accounts will be subject to certain restrictions and monitoring by Facebook for any violations of their terms of service. It remains to be seen how much freedom Donald Trump will have in his use of these platforms, but either way this news has been long awaited by many of his supporters. Facebook has officially announced that President Trump’s accounts have been restored, and will be subject to special restrictions, likely allowing him to have the platform and post as he did until COVID-19, however, the boot will most likely come down on Trump again if he were to again post non-CDC approved COVID-19 facts, along with posts about election fraud.
In their statement announcing the return on Donald Trump’s account, Meta commented further on Donald Trump’s posting of information they view as “distasteful or inaccurate” stating:
“We default to letting people speak, even when what they have to say is distasteful or factually wrong. Democracy is messy and people should be able to make their voices heard. We believe it is both necessary and possible to draw a line between content that is harmful and should be removed, and content that, however distasteful or inaccurate, is part of the rough and tumble of life in a free society.”
Meta would go on to conclude their statement, saying:
“We know that any decision we make on this issue will be fiercely criticized. Reasonable people will disagree over whether it is the right decision. But a decision had to be made, so we have tried to make it as best we can in a way that is consistent with our values and the process we established in response to the Oversight Board’s guidance.”
Of course, the move was celebrated by many and criticized by others. Trump supporters showed excitement, as this could help Donald Trump win the Primaries in 2024 by once again reaching a large audience on social media. Others, however, were angered by the move, invoking tired arguments about January 6th.
The move from Meta comes following the decision made by new Twitter CEO Elon Musk on November 18, where he decided to reinstate Donald Trump’s Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump.
In the poll which received 134 million votes, Twitter users decided by a margin of 51.8% to 48.2% to unban former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
