Meta to reinstate Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts
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[January 26, 2023]
By Katie Paul and Sheila Dang
(Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc said Wednesday it will reinstate former
U.S. President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts in the
coming weeks, following a two-year suspension after the deadly Capitol
Hill riot on January 6, 2021.
The restoration of his accounts could provide a boost to Trump, who
announced in November he will make another run for the White House in
2024. He has 34 million followers on Facebook and 23 million on
Instagram, platforms that are key vehicles for political outreach and
fundraising.
His Twitter account was restored in November by new owner Elon Musk,
though Trump has yet to post there.
Free speech advocates say it is appropriate for the public to have
access to messaging from political candidates, but critics of Meta have
accused the company of lax moderating policies.
Meta said in a blog post Wednesday it has "put new guardrails in place
to deter repeat offenses."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jan/26/images/ads/current/fcs_funeral_lda_border_04029022.png)
"In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the
content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month
and two years, depending on the severity of the violation," wrote Nick
Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, in the blog post.
The decision, while widely expected, drew sharp rebukes from civil
rights advocates. "Facebook has policies but they under-enforce them,"
said Laura Murphy, an attorney who led a two-year long audit of Facebook
concluding in 2020. "I worry about Facebook's capacity to understand the
real world harm that Trump poses: Facebook has been too slow to act."
The Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Free Press and other groups also
expressed concern Wednesday over Facebook's ability to prevent any
future attacks on the democratic process, with Trump still repeating his
false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.
Others said it was the right decision.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment
Institute at Columbia University and a former ACLU official, defended
the reinstatement. He had previously endorsed the company's decision to
suspend Trump's account.
"The public has an interest in hearing directly from candidates for
political office," said Jaffer. "It's better if the major social media
platforms err on the side of leaving speech up, even if the speech is
offensive or false, so that it can be addressed by other users and other
institutions."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jan/26/images/ads/current/2022%20Business%20Directory%20Cover%20lda%202022.png)
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![](../images/012623PIX/news_h13.jpg)
Former U.S. President Donald Trump
announces that he will once again run for U.S. president in the 2024
U.S. presidential election during an event at his Mar-a-Lago estate
in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. November 15, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan
Ernst
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Jan/26/images/ads/current/llm_quarter_EDUCATION_2023.png)
OTHER REACTIVATIONS?
The decision to ban Trump was a polarizing one for Meta, the world's
biggest social media company, which prior to the Trump suspension
had never blocked the account of a sitting head of state for
violating its content rules.
The company indefinitely revoked Trump's access to his Facebook and
Instagram accounts after removing two of his posts during the
Capitol Hill violence, including a video in which he reiterated his
false claim of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential
election.
It then referred the case to its independent oversight board, which
ruled that the suspension was justified but its indeterminate nature
was not. In response, Meta said it would revisit the suspension two
years after it began.
Meta's blog post Wednesday suggested it may reactivate other
suspended accounts, including those penalized for their involvement
in civil unrest. The company said those reinstated accounts would be
subject to more stringent review and penalties for violations.
Whether, and how, Trump will seize upon the opportunity to return to
Facebook and Instagram is unclear.
Trump has not sent any new tweets since regaining his account on
Twitter, saying he would prefer to stick with his own app Truth
Social. But his campaign spokesman told Fox News Digital last week
that being back on Facebook "will be an important tool for the 2024
campaign to reach voters."
In a post on Truth Social, Trump responded to his reinstatement on
Meta apps, saying: "Such a thing should never again happen to a
sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of
retribution!" He did not indicate if or when he would begin posting
on Meta platforms again.
![](../images/012623PIX/news_h27.png)
Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat who previously chaired the
House Intelligence Committee, criticized the decision to reinstate
him.
"Trump incited an insurrection," Schiff wrote on Twitter. "Giving
him back access to a social media platform to spread his lies and
demagoguery is dangerous."
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas and Katie Paul in Palo Alto;
additional reporting by Greg Bensinger, David Shepardson, Kanishka
Singh, Eva Mathews and Yuvraj Malik; Editing by Kenneth Li and
Rosalba O'Brien)
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