In a recent announcement, Meta has revealed that it will lift restrictions on former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts ahead of the 2024 election. The social media giant plans to ease penalties unique to the 78-year-old former president’s accounts if he violates company rules in the 115 days leading up to Election Day, bringing Trump “to parity with corrupt president Biden,” according to a Meta spokesperson who spoke with The Post.
The heightened penalties imposed on Trump’s accounts, which include suspension and advertising restrictions, would have been enforced if the former president violated company policies designed to prevent “hate speech and incitement to violence.” In an update to his January 2023 statement, Meta’s President of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, explained that the company will review accounts subject to this protocol on a periodic basis to determine whether heightened suspension penalties for Community Standards violations remain appropriate.
Clegg added that in assessing its responsibility to allow political expression, the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis. Therefore, former President Trump, as the nominee of the Republican Party, will no longer be subject to the heightened suspension penalties.
Clegg noted that in the time Trump’s been subject to elevated penalties, the company has not needed to deploy the extreme restrictions to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s accounts. Both Biden and Trump are still subject to Meta’s “Community Standards,” and the Silicon Valley giant maintains its ability to limit the distribution of certain posts, according to Axios, which first reported on Friday’s rollback.
Trump, who has a combined total of nearly 54 million followers on both Facebook and Instagram, was suspended from the platforms the day after the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol Building. His account privileges were restored in February 2023 after a two-year ban. Trump has frequently posted on both Instagram and Facebook during his quest for a second term in the White House, but his primary vehicle for issuing public comments has been Truth Social – the social media platform he launched after his presidency. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The Biden campaign criticized Meta over the move, calling it a “geedy” and “reckless” decision. Charles Lutvak, a Biden campaign spokesperson, said in a statement: “Donald Trump relied on these social media platforms to send a violent mob to the Capitol on January 6, where they tried to overturn an election he lost fair and square.” Lutvak continued by saying that “restoring his access is like handing your car keys to someone you know will drive your car into a crowd and off a cliff. It is holding a megaphone for a bonafide racist who will shout his hate and white supremacy from the rooftops and try to take it mainstream. Without question, it is a direct attack on our safety and our democracy.
This greedy, reckless decision will allow Trump and his MAGA allies to reach more Americans with their fundamentally undemocratic, un-American misinformation,” Lutvak concluded. Unfortunately, we will all pay the price.
