Former President Trump took to social media on Wednesday afternoon to berate Facebook and parent company Meta for banning him in the first place, after they announced he would be reinstated on the platform following his two-month ban. years.
“FACEBOOK, which has lost billions of dollars since it ‘deplatformed’ your favorite president, me, just announced that it is reinstating my account,” he wrote shortly after 4 p.m. “Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting president, or anyone else who doesn’t deserve punishment!”
In the post, the former president also thanked Truth Social, his own platform, for “doing an amazing job” to have him and for their recent success.
Meta, which also owns and operates Instagram, announced via a blog post on Wednesday that it would end Trump’s suspension on both social media platforms “in the coming weeks.”
TRUMP SAYS FACEBOOK ‘NEEDS US MORE THAN WE NEED THEM’, AS CAMPAIGN CALLS FOR REINTEGRATION
Former President Donald Trump on September 03, 2022 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, said the company has determined that Trump is no longer a “serious public safety risk” and that they have put in place “safeguards” for his return.
“To assess whether the serious risk to public safety that existed in January 2021 has sufficiently receded, we assessed the current environment in accordance with our crisis policy protocol, which included reviewing the conduct of the midterm elections in United States in 2022, and expert assessments of the current security environment,” Clegg wrote. “Our determination is that the risk has receded sufficiently, and therefore we must adhere to the two-year timeline we have set. . As such, we will be restoring Mr. Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks. However, we are doing so with new safeguards in place to deter repeat offences.”
The suspension was originally instituted following the Capitol Riot on Jan. 6, 2021, when the platform said it would kick Trump “indefinitely” for his alleged involvement.
The decision provoked backlash across the political spectrum and was the first time a sitting president had been banned from Facebook. At the time, Trump was also banned from Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat.
An image of former President Donald Trump is displayed as members of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol at the Canon House office building on Capitol Hill on December 19 2022, in Washington, DC.
(Jim Lo Scalzo-Pool/Getty Images)
Clegg said Facebook assessed the suspension later that year, in June 2021, when it changed the ban to a minimum of two years, through January 2023.
The guardrails include an increased penalty for repeat offense, if Trump violates the platforms’ terms of service or contributes to conversations that “do not violate our Community Standards but contribute to the type of risk that materialized on the 6 January,” Clegg said.
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“In light of his (Trump’s) violations, he now faces stiffer penalties for repeat offenses — penalties that will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated after suspensions related to civil unrest in under our updated protocol,” Clegg continued on Wednesday.
A repeat offense, Clegg said, would result in another ban ranging from one month to two years, depending “on the seriousness of the violation.”
Clegg also acknowledged that Trump’s return to the platform would trigger a backlash among his critics.
A mobile billboard, deployed by Accountable Tech, is seen outside Meta’s corporate headquarters on January 17, 2023 in Menlo Park, California.
(Kimberly White/Getty Images for Responsible Technology)
In an exclusive interview, Trump previously told Fox News Digital that Facebook had “lost $700 billion since I was de-platformed.”
“This was considered a major business error for them, Twitter and others,” he added.
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“If they brought us back, that would help them a lot, and that’s fine with me,” Trump said earlier this month. “But they need us more than we need them.”
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital that Trump relied heavily on Facebook ad sales during his successful 2016 campaign when he defeated Hillary Clinton.
Former US President Donald Trump speaks at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, US on Tuesday, November 15, 2022.
(Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump spent $44 million between June and November 2016, Cheung said, citing nearly 6 million different versions of ads Trump ran.
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The former Republican president announced his 2024 presidential campaign in November and is the only candidate currently in the race.
His offer could set up a possible rematch with President Biden.
Fox News’ Adam Sabes and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
