NATIONAL — Facebook opens the door to former President Donald Trump. META, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram made the announcement yesterday.
In a statement, Wednesday, the tech giant said, “Social media is rooted in the belief that open debate and the free flow of ideas are important values, especially at a time when they are under threat in many places around the world. As a general rule, we don’t want to get in the way of open, public, and democratic debate on Meta’s platforms — especially in the context of elections in democratic societies like the United States. The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying — the good, the bad, and the ugly — so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box. But that does not mean there are no limits to what people can say on our platform. When there is a clear risk of real-world harm — a deliberately high bar for Meta to intervene in public discourse — we act.”
Trump’s account on the two social media platforms has been suspended since January 7, 2021. META said the suspension was directly linked to the January 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol.
“Two years ago, we took action in what were extreme and highly unusual circumstances. We indefinitely suspended then-US President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts following his praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. We then referred that decision to the Oversight Board — an expert body established to be an independent check and balance on our decision-making. The Board upheld the decision but criticized the open-ended nature of the suspension and the lack of clear criteria for when and whether suspended accounts will be restored, directing us to review the matter to determine a more proportionate response,” states a press release from the company.
The 45th President of the United States took his personal social media platform, Truth Social, to release a comment on Facebook account reinstatement.
“Facebook, which has lost billions of dollars in value since de-platforming your favorite President, me, has just announced that they are reinstating my account. Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting President, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution,” said Trump.