Facebook To Lift Ban On Donald Trump

Meta will reinstate former President Trump on Facebook and Instagram "in the coming week," says company executive Nick Clegg.

Meta suspended Trump in 2021 following the events of Jan. 6.

"We've always believed that Americans should be able to hear from the people who want to lead the country," Clegg told Axios. "We don't want to stand in the way of that."

The reinstatements will allow Trump to run ads on his Facebook and Instagram pages, which have 34 million and 23 million followers, respectively.

As Meta vowed to rule on the matter in January, Trump’s campaign had formally petitioned for a return earlier this month.

“We believe that the ban on President Trump’s account on Facebook has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” Trump’s campaign wrote in its letter to Meta last Tuesday.

NBC News reports he is also planning a return to Twitter, where he amassed 88 million followers.

Expect the former president to also find the new "For You" feature on Twitter useless and hindering.

Trump on Truth Social

Since 2021, Trump has posted exclusively on his own Truth Social platform. There, he has a follower account of 5 million.

Relying on Truth would limit Trump's reach ahead of the 2024 bid, which he announced last November.

That said, reports remain conflicting on whether Trump's agreement with Truth could prohibit him from frequently posting on more mainstream social platforms.

Users signed up for Truth to hear from Trump. The platform would have little to offer in the event he returns to posting on Twitter and Facebook.

Of course, Trump could have issues with new Meta policies.

"Trump will be subject to new policies that Meta has created following feedback from its independent Oversight Board that could restrict his accounts — including his ability to run ads — should he violate the company's policies in the future," reports Axios.

"We just do not want — if he is to return to our services — for him to do what he did on January 6, which is to use our services to delegitimize the 2024 election, much as he sought to discredit the 2020 election," Clegg added.

Spoiler, politically-motivated censorship continues to loom at Facebook. And perhaps to a stronger degree than before.