Meta has lifted restrictions imposed on Donald Trump after the 6 January attack on the Capitol, putting the former president on an equal footing on the platform with President Joe Biden just days before the Republican National Convention. The social media giant initially banned Trump from its platforms in 2021 following the storming of the Capitol by his supporters.
The ex-US president and convicted felon had his accounts suspended in 2021 after he praised supporters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January. The social media giant initially banned Trump from its platforms following the incident. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, lifted that ban last year but introduced “guardrails” including “heightened suspension penalties” for any posts that violated its standards.
Meta has now removed these restrictions, citing that while they were necessary due to the “extreme and extraordinary circumstances” of the Capitol attack, Trump had not breached any of the conditions since then. In a blog post, the company noted that Trump’s accounts, which combined have over 60 million followers, were reinstated in 2023 but subject to additional monitoring, which has now been removed.
“In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, wrote in a statement posted to the company’s website on Friday.
Clegg added that both Biden and Trump remain subject to the same “community standards” that apply to all other users on Facebook and Instagram.
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Trump Is First Ex-US President To Be Banned From Twitter And YouTube
Since returning to Meta’s platforms, Trump’s accounts have mostly posted campaign details and memes, including attacks on his presidential race rival Joe Biden. Prior to his 2021 ban, Trump’s Facebook posts were often some of the most popular in the US, according to data at the time from CrowdTangle, the BBC reported.
Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and was also banned from Twitter and YouTube. Restrictions on these accounts were also lifted last year. Despite this, Trump primarily communicates on Truth Social, a social media platform he owns, before reposting to other networks. He returned to Twitter—now called X—after the company’s CEO Elon Musk held a poll asking users to vote on whether Trump’s account should be reinstated. “Yes” won with 51.8% of the vote.
The actions by the big tech companies came after the Capitol Hill riots, which resulted in the deaths of five people and injuries to more than 100 police officers. Trump was accused of inciting violence and repeatedly spreading disinformation.